Haynes and Boone's Newsroom

Paul Dickerson in Renewable Energy World: Are Cleantech Firms Ready for the Spotlight?
06/28/2010

Haynes and Boone partner Paul Dickerson co-authors advice to cleantech companies on corporate governance.

If you don't work for a public company, then chances are you aren't paying much attention to additional new corporate governance rules that went into effect at the start of this year. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) further amended proxy disclosure rules to compel companies to report how pay relates to risk, how the board oversees risk and the qualifications and diversity of their directors.

[...]cleantech executives should get ahead of the game soon to instill three best corporate governance practices among companies preparing to go public:

• Start with the right people at the top. Populate your board and executive suite with experienced persons who are expected to make meaningful contributions to your business, governance, compliance and risk management. Embrace diversity, whether of viewpoints, professional experience, education, skill, race, gender, national origin or other individual qualities and attributes.
  
• Establish the right tone at the top. Don’t expect your employees to conduct themselves differently than you. If you prioritize integrity, effectiveness, quality and compliance, they will too. Ask your teams to constantly consider how their conduct would be received as a national headline in the morning newspaper.
  
• Align performance incentives with sound business decisions. Compensate performance in a way that doesn’t encourage excessive or inappropriate risk taking. For example, it may be inappropriate to simply reward closing a deal or creating a product when expected returns from the deal or product have yet to be realized.

Excerpted from "Are Cleantech Firms Ready for the Spotlight?" Renewable Energy World, June 28, 2010. To read the full article, click here.