Bringing Insights Forward through Thoughtful Analysis with Stephen Perrone

As the corporate governance environment continues to evolve, Nasdaq Governance Solutions is committed to evolving with it. In 2019, Nasdaq acquired the Center for Board Excellence, expanding its suite of solutions and providing organizations with more tools to help them drive governance excellence.

From Seattle to New York, meet a few of the bright minds on the Nasdaq Board Engagement team. These individuals play an integral role in helping boards and leadership teams simplify governance and compliance processes, identify growth opportunities, and turn feedback into strategic action. With years of insight and expertise, they have become an invaluable part of the Nasdaq family.

We hear from Stephen Perrone, Senior Manager, Client Services at Nasdaq, who speaks to his experience.

Tell us about your role on the Nasdaq Board Engagement team.

I recently joined the Board Engagement team after spending the last five years overseeing the work of the operations team for all client projects. It was early in my time on the team that my interests in corporate governance piqued, and I began to pursue additional readings outside of the office to better familiarize myself with current trends and best practices. I have helped in conducting hundreds, if not thousands, of board evaluations for a variety of clients that ranged from non-profits, privately held and publicly traded companies, universities, and so on. I hope to use my past experiences to help improve on our clients’ desires to streamline processes, while also delivering thoughtful and practical analysis of content that brings insights and value to those involved.  

How have your experiences in client services and operations shaped your approach to board interviews?

Through the numerous evaluations over the years, I have been able to work with the rest of the Board Engagement team to see just how they go about creating analysis for client reports. In most instances, our evaluations are meant to be used as a sounding board. We don’t know the inner workings of each clients’ boards, nor their members’ working dynamics. We act as an intermediary that can confidently work through the data and look for common themes that present themselves in the form of ratings and open-ended comments. We use these common themes to form a picture of what the client’s board has told us they do well or poorly. It is this experience in our analysis methodology that allows me to probe both the strengths and weaknesses that we find during our review of the data when interviewing board members. 

How has being a part of Nasdaq expanded your team’s ability to positively impact clients?

Nasdaq has given our team access to the resources needed to cast a wider net and reach more potential clients than we have in the past. Our initial partnership, before the Center for Board Excellence acquisition, aligned both groups with the vision of promoting good corporate governance throughout the world. Now one-year post the October 2019 acquisition, we are continuing to look for ways to collaborate with others and further expand on what these practices and policies can do to support an ever-evolving global business community.  

What best practice do you recommend to better manage client projects?

It’s important to be transparent and honest, which is something I realized while in my previous role that has seemed to work with all types of clients over the years. While this may seem obvious, transparency allows every client to be prepared for whatever may occur during the process. It’s not always the easiest method of delivering news to a client, but I believe it’s the most appreciated and respected. Ensuring a client is aware of all the respective deadlines for project milestones is integral to adopting a new practice, like switching from a paper process to a digital Directors’ & Officers’ questionnaire form through our EnGauge^TM platform. 

What is the key to managing client delivery expectations successfully?

Communication. Establishing early on what the client can expect during the process is the best and only way to ensure we haven’t just gained a client for a year, but a long-term partner that understands our goal of advancing governance practices and ideas that will bring a beneficial return on investment to all stakeholders involved. 

Nasdaq Board Engagement serves clients by delivering distinct value through our qualitative and quantitative board and leadership evaluation and governance and compliance products and services. Click here to learn more about our solutions for boards and meet the Nasdaq Board Engagement team.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Other Topics

Corporate Governance

MarketInsite

Nasdaq

Nasdaq’s Marketinsite offers actionable insights on a variety of market-moving topics. Learn from our thought leaders who are driving the capital markets of tomorrow.

Read MarketInsite's Bio