Suzanne Brown: The NYSE Board Diversity Initiative.

0:00 -- Intro.1:43 -- Start of interview.2:11 -- Suzanne's "origin story" "One of my proudest jobs was working with the NJ Pandemic Relief Fund"14:12 -- Joining the NYSE Board Diversity Initiative. *reference to Chief ("the only private membership network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders")15:22 -- Three key NYSE ESG Initiatives:The NYSE Sustainability Advisory Council (tackling the "E" in ESG)The NYSE/Syndio collaboration (tackling the "S" in ESG)The NYSE Advisory Board Council (tackling the "G" in ESG). It was created to help identify and place diverse candidates to serve on boards (*it has placed 38 board candidates, as of the date of this recording).Council: 25 members ("it launched in 2019 with 16 CEOs of the NYSE")Candidates: ~700 CEO vetted candidates.Companies: all ~2,400 NYSE listed companies + private PE/VC backed companies.25:04 -- On placing directors on cross-listed (international) companies. "Over 15% of our candidates are international"26:39 -- On the impact of SB-826, AB-979 and other board diversity efforts. "Intentionality [on this topic] works"28:47 -- On the ESG and DEI backlash. "ESG really suffers from a branding problem."31:46 -- Board dynamics, age and generational shifts in the boardroom. "The avg age of directors has remained at 64 years old."33:57 -- On the evolution and trends in board diversity. On the "pipeline falacy."36:33-- Current state of capital markets. History of the NYSE.40:27 -- Other corporate governance trends: term limits, board evaluations ("it's what you do with it afterwards"), global supply chain, green energy transition and cybersecurity expertise. *reference to E107 with David Larcker and Brian Tayan46:00 -- Books that have greatly influenced her life: Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605 and 1615)Start with Why by Simon Sinek (2009)47:54 -- Her mentors, and what she learned from them: "it's more of a collective with other women."48:41 -- Quotes she thinks of often or lives her life by: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it's the courage to carry on that counts." Winston Churchill. 49:18 -- An unusual habit or an absurd thing that he loves: "I love to research obscure dogs."51:35 -- The living person she most admires: Jimmy Carter.Suzanne Brown currently leads the NYSE's effort to place more diverse candidates on corporate and private company boards. __ You can follow Evan on social media at:Twitter: @evanepsteinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/__You can join as a Patron of the Boardroom Governance Podcast at:Patreon: patreon.com/BoardroomGovernancePod__Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License You can follow Evan on social media at:X: @evanepsteinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/__To support this podcast you can join as a subscriber of the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at https://evanepstein.substack.com/__Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License