KPMG Board Leadership Center Webcast: 2021 Proxy Season Trends

Named by NACD as one of the 100 most influential people in corporate governance and the boardroom, Stephen L. Brown is a globally recognized governance expert, thought leader and trusted adviser to corporate boards and C-suites. Currently, he is a Senior Adviser at KPMG Board Leadership Center (BLC). At BLC, he articulates boardroom challenges and actionable thought leadership on strategy, risk, talent, technology, globalization, and financial reporting by engaging with directors, business leaders and investors. Mr. Brown founded The Edgerton Group, a boutique consulting firm that advises boards and management on critical corporate governance issues including anti-activist defense, executive compensation and other proxy disclosures, board evaluations and shareholder engagement. Formerly, he was CEO of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals and managed TIAA’s corporate governance group and led the corporate governance and social responsibility initiatives related to the firm’s over $800 billion investment portfolio. Prior to TIAA, Mr. Brown practiced securities law at Wilmer Hale and Skadden and was an associate with Goldman Sachs. He has served as a judge for Corporate Secretary Magazine Corporate Governance Awards and the NYSE Governance, Risk & Compliance Leadership Awards. Mr. Brown is an adjunct professor at McDonough School of Business at Georgetown, Yale, and in the Skadden, Arps Honors Program in Legal Studies, Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at City College of New York. He received his B.A. with honors from Yale and his J.D. from Columbia University Law School where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He serves on several non-profit boards and is an elected public school board member.

Pamela is a partner in Freshfields’ New York office whose practice focuses on capital markets transactions and corporate governance matters. She has extensive experience advising issuers on disclosure and corporate governance issues, including SEC, stock exchange, Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank compliance. In particular, Pamela regularly advises boards of directors and management on a variety of topics, including crisis preparedness, mitigation and response; management succession plans; board composition, refreshment, succession and director independence; shareholder engagement and activism defense; shareholder proposals and proxy season trends; environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues; and cybersecurity matters. In addition to her practice, she regularly lectures and writes on corporate governance, cybersecurity and blockchain topics. Among her many accolades, Pamela is ranked among only four leading lawyers for corporate governance in Legal 500 US, and has been named among “Rising Stars” in capital markets by Law360 and “Trailblazers” in cryptocurrency, blockchain and fintech by The National Law Journal.