Nicholas Benes: "We Need to Redesign the Corporation to Provide Better Incentives"

Start of interview [1:40]

Nick's "origin story", from New Jersey to California to Japan [3:33]

His first board experience with Alps Mapping ('00-'06) [7:34]

Why he founded the Board Director Training Institute of Japan in 2009 [12:40]

His WSJ article on "Japan's Coming Shareholder Revolution" (2001) [19:42]

Japan's keiretsu system ("a defensive cross-shareholding wall") [21:04]

The historical resistance against having independent directors in Japan companies [23:25]

The effect of the ACCJ's white paper that led to Japan's Stewardship Code (2014) and Corporate Governance Code (2015) [24:40]

Why Japan needed a corporate governance code (to enhance corporate disclosure) [32:20]

Japan's change in board composition (now one third are independent directors) [34:52]

His take on executive pay, particularly around the approval of "Say-on-Pay" in the US and distinctions with exec comp in Japan [36:51]

His take on ESG and "stakeholder capitalism" [39:50]

Nick's opinion of dual class share structures: "I dislike them vehemently, I think they make a mockery of the concept of shareholder democracy" [45:34]

Nick's recent proposal: "Redesigning corporations: Incentives Matter" (published in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance) [47:50]

The use of blockchain technology to track beneficial share ownership [57:17]

How to find Nicholas Benes online:

Website: https://bdti.or.jp/en/
Email: info@bdti.or.jp
Twitter: @benesjp