For students who will soon enter the business world, corporate governance might be something they haven’t given much thought to. What does it entail? What does good corporate governance even mean? And what kinds of questions should we be asking?
The 2nd annual Mehrotra Summit on November 10 was laser-focused on this topic. Small teams of seniors in our honors program conducted extensive research on a specific corporate governance-related topic and then presented their findings to the freshmen enrolled in our newly revamped SM 131 introductory business course. The seniors also led discussions with expert panels of faculty and industry leaders. Members of the Mehrotra Institute Advisory Board, along with several local industry leaders, attended the daylong event and added their insights to the discussion.
“Researching and learning about the topic of ‘Worker Representation on Corporate Boards’ – an area where I had limited prior knowledge – was both new and rewarding,” said BU honors senior student Sarah Chen. “My curiosity and efforts resulted in presenting a deliverable with insights that I am incredibly proud of.”
Each student team had a Mehrotra faculty advisor, with expertise related to the research subject. “The goal was to do a deep dive into this topic and look at it from multiple angles so that students could appreciate all of the nuance and impact that governance has on a company,” said Questrom Professor Patricia Cortes, who runs the honors program. “From the research that was accomplished and the sorts of questions that students asked, I think we were successful.”
Leading up to the summit, we released a second student-led episode of our Is Business Broken? Podcast – Why Should We Care About Corporate Governance? This episode, funded by the newly established Raif Dinçkök Student Forum Fund, was an interview with Mehrotra visiting professor, Roy Shapira, by Questrom student Grant Corbett. SM131 freshmen were provided this podcast as preparation for the summit.
The summit morning was broken into three segments. The first three student presentations focused on the topic of Boardroom Governance: Independence, Expertise, and Ownership Structures, asking these questions:
- Does greater board independence improve the alignment between CEO compensation and firm performance?
- How does the trade-off between director independence and expertise shape boards’ balance between monitoring and advising?
- Common Ownership and Innovation: How Investor Engagement Shapes Competition Among Rivals.
An in-depth discussion of these topics followed the presentations, during which a senior led the questioning of our panel, comprised of: Professor Roy Shapira, Professor of Law at Reichman University; Kevin McGovern, President of the New England Chapter of National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD); and Jay Powers, Senior Vice President and Assistant Corporate Secretary and Associate General Counsel at Citizens Bank.
The second set of student presentations discussed Corporate Purpose, Stakeholders, and Emerging Challenges. The focus areas were:
- Public vs. Private Ownership in Green Innovation
- Shareholder, Stakeholder, or Family Control? Corporate Governance in the US, Sweden, and Korea
- What are the implications of worker representation on corporate boards, and why have U.S. companies avoided this model compared to Germany?
The student-led discussion panel for this segment was comprised of: Professor David H. Webber, Professor of Law and Paul M. Siskind Scholar at Boston University School of Law; Professor Sara Armitage, Assistant Professor of Markets, Public Policy, and Law at Questrom; and Professor Julie Yen, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at Questrom.
The final set of student presentations delved into Corporate Purpose, Stakeholders, and Emerging Challenges and discussed these topics:
- How does ESG performance impact the firm’s market outcomes?
- How does the distribution of stakeholder power shape corporate purpose?
- Who Should Govern AI? Regulation, Corporate Governance, and the Case of OpenAI.
In this final panel we hosted: Jesse Coleman, Questrom MBA Class of 2026 and Professor Marshall Van Alstyne, Allen and Kelli Questrom Professor in Information Systems at Questrom.
Watch recordings of these presentations here.
It’s probably safe to say that most students went into this project knowing very little about corporate governance – or its importance. “Before this panel, I thought corporate governance seemed overwhelming and honestly, dull,” said freshman Riley Haberman. “Hearing Professor Webber’s comment on how workers in the US can influence companies through their pension funds made me realize that the way a company is governed can directly affect its success. I think this speaks to a larger and important message about finding power in unexpected ways, a lesson I can carry with me as I navigate the business world.”
Over lunch, the format changed entirely, and students and faculty were treated to a live recording of our podcast, Is Business Broken? WBUR’s Curt Nickisch moderated a panel of speakers including: Ruth Aguilera, Professor in Global Business at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business; Kevin McGovern, President of the New England Chapter of NACD; and visiting Mehrotra professor Roy Shapira from Reichman University in Israel in a wide-ranging discussion of corporate governance, with a focus on geo-politics. The episode, ‘Are Boardrooms Ready for the New Geopolitical Reality?’ is available now on our podcast. You can listen here: Is Business Broken? | Podcast on Spotify
The summit ended with a student-led screening of the movie, The Social Network, with a discussion about social media, platforms, and the upcoming sequel. “It was super fun talking about this movie with my peers,” said Questrom student, Grant Corbett (class of 2027). “It was definitely interesting watching the story of Facebook and then talking about the role of social media in society today – and the rules that do and don’t exist surrounding this relatively new industry.”
