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75% Of Corporate Directors Say Their Roles and Responsibilities Are Expanding, According to Diligent and Corporate Board Member

Monday, February 20, 2023

NEW YORK - Seventy-five percent of corporate directors say the roles and responsibilities of the board will continue expanding in scope over the next three to five years, according to a new report released today by Diligent, the global leader in modern governance providing SaaS solutions across governance, risk, compliance, audit and ESG, and Corporate Board Member, the market-leading publication for public company board members.

The expanding remit of boards into areas like cyber risk, adherence with regulatory requirements, ESG and digital transformation underscores the need for the right data and insights to better oversee risk. Directors also expect the makeup of boards to change in order to better respond to these risks: 23% of directors said traditional board structures no longer align with today’s increasing areas of risks and opportunities, and 25% said their next board member hire would need to fill a skills gap at the table.

“The list of issues shareholders associate with being material to a company’s success and longevity has grown, and as a result, so have the expectations and responsibilities of the board of directors,” said Lisa Edwards, Executive Chair of Diligent Institute. “While directors generally feel confident in their ability to rise to the challenge, we’re hearing that they need help effectively overseeing new and evolving areas of risk — particularly around issues like cyber risk and digital transformation.”

The report, What Directors Think, details findings from a survey of 300 directors that provides new insights into what is top of mind for America’s corporate directors in 2023. Among the top findings:

Boards struggle to oversee cyber risk and digital transformation

• Despite 42% of directors saying digital transformation is a top priority in 2023-4, 35% struggle to oversee digital transformation and the implementation of new technologies in their organizations.

• 38% of directors identify cyber risk and data security as the issue most challenging to oversee in their role, and 47% are engaging in director education programs to prepare for proposed regulatory requirements surrounding cybersecurity disclosures.

Audit committee responsibilities are expanding dramatically

• 66% of directors said the areas of risk overseen by the audit committee has dramatically expanded in the 20 years since the passage of SOX.

• 35% say the audit committee’s role rivals that of the full board in terms of complexity and scope, and 54% say internal audit plays an important role in informing strategic conversations at the board level.

Directors are suffering from “ESG fatigue”

• 24% and 19% of directors said shareholders have requested to discuss climate/sustainability and diversity initiatives in the last year, respectfully, and 40% are engaging in director education programs to prepare for proposed regulatory requirements surrounding climate disclosures.

• Despite this, 50% of directors say ESG is getting too much attention in the boardroom, indicating that while climate and diversity remain vital issues, ESG as a business approach has become increasingly unwieldy.

“Interestingly, what we hear from directors about their priorities—growing revenues and strategic planning—hasn’t changed over 20 years of fielding the survey,” said Melanie Nolen, Corporate Board Member’s Research Editor and the Director of Research for parent company Chief Executive Group. “But the proliferation of risk oversight issues and the quantification of the processes amid increased scrutiny from every group of stakeholders is significantly adding to directors’ workload.”

Diligent Adds PwC Canada, Vervantis, Clarity AI and Others to Its Growing List of Partners, Extending Ability To Integrate With the Industry’s Leading GRC Platform

Monday, March 06, 2023

The Diligent Partner Program provides access to Diligent’s comprehensive portfolio of GRC and ESG solutions, giving partners the opportunity to connect organizational data to help companies make more informed decisions

NEW YORK - Diligent, announced new partnerships in response to the growing demand for connected insights across organizations. The Diligent Partner Program enables partners to add value for their clients, allowing them to capture new revenue streams by offering a single source to meet all their governance, risk and compliance (GRC) and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) needs.

“We’re thrilled to welcome great partners across the consultancy, sustainability, IT and legal spaces,” said Ricardo Moreno, SVP of Worldwide Partnerships at Diligent. “Today’s organizations are navigating an ever-increasing set of challenges while being asked to unite performance and purpose. Leaders need the right data and insights to make better decisions, faster. We’re excited to offer our partners access to our entire portfolio of solutions, along with the resources, investment and incentives, to respond to this demand for connected insights.”

Select organizations Diligent has partnered with recently include:

• Best in Governance – Best in Governance Inc. (BIG) provides bespoke, modern sustainable corporate governance and ESG advisory services. Through the partnership, customers can access advisory services to optimize their corporate governance frameworks and ESG strategies, complementary to the suite of comprehensive governance and ESG solutions that Diligent provides to improve and simplify modern day sustainable governance strategies.

• Board Excellence – Board Excellence is a leading advisory firm, based in Ireland and the UK, empowering boards to excel in governance, effectiveness and performance. Customers of Board Excellence and Diligent can now leverage the combined power of board & leadership collaboration solutions and advisory services to stay ahead of increasingly complex business landscapes.

• Brave Consultancy – Brave Within LLP. is a leading UK consultancy providing services across the entire journey of governance, risk, control, assurance and regulatory compliance. Organizations can now leverage Diligent’s entire robust GRC solutions suite and Brave Consultancy's leading advisory services to make better decisions, faster.

• Clarity AI – Clarity AI is a leading sustainability technology platform. Through the partnership, ESG data and ratings from Clarity AI now integrates with Diligent’s board & leadership collaboration solutions for both public and private companies to gain insights into their ESG profile and ratings, all within the world’s leading board solution.

• CYLK – CYLK Technologing serves the cybersecurity market in Brazil with innovative solutions to maintain agility and get ahead. Through the partnership, CYLK’s customers will have access to Diligent as a preferred GRC solutions provider, benefiting from both leading cybersecurity consultancy services and intelligent risk and strategy solutions.

• PwC Canada – PwC Canada is a professional services firm with a focus on audit and assurance, tax, deals and consulting targeting solutions for cybersecurity, GRC, financial transformation and more. Through PwC Canada’s partnership with Diligent, customers can now leverage Diligent’s leading GRC solutions to mitigate and get ahead of risk to build resiliency.

• Software & Consulting Americas – Software & Consulting Americas is a leading consultancy with roots in Latin America, providing specialized software solutions and services to the private and public sectors. Following a 15-year partnership in Peru, Software & Consulting is expanding its partnership with Diligent to offer its leading Audit and GRC solutions to its U.S. and Canadian customers.

• TheMediaGroup – TheMediaGroup is a leading consultancy in Brazil that supports organizations with stakeholder engagement, action planning and alignment of ESG issues with financial strategy. Through the partnership, customers of The Media Group can access Diligent as a preferred software provider to help them execute on their ESG transformation goals.

• Vervantis – Vervantis Inc. is an energy, sustainability, and utility bill management specialist providing advice, software, and expertise to large and medium-sized companies across North America. Through the partnership, Vervantis’ clients will benefit from Diligent’s leading ESG and risk and compliance solutions in addition to Vervantis’ best-in-class energy, utilities, and environmental management software.

“Organizations today are navigating rapidly changing business environments. At PwC Canada, we are passionate about bringing together different perspectives and capabilities to help our customers adapt, differentiate, and deliver value,” said Kishan Dial, Partner, Risk Assurance Services at PwC Canada. “Diligent's leading SaaS solutions will enable organizations to manage their ESG, governance, risk and compliance objectives and build resilience.”

“Vervantis is thrilled to partner with Diligent, offering our customers its leading ESG reporting and compliance software,” said Dan Moat, President of Vervantis. “Diligent integrates perfectly with our suite of energy and utility bill validation solutions providing organizations with a simple answer to an increasingly complex compliance environment.”

Diligent Announces Diligent Market Intelligence, The Most Comprehensive Governance and Shareholder Intelligence Provider on the Market

Thursday, August 03, 2023

Diligent Market Intelligence drives decision making with leading data and analytics across corporate governance, shareholder activism and ESG

NEW YORK: Diligent, a leading GRC SaaS company, today announced the launch of Diligent Market Intelligence, a market-leading provider of governance and shareholder intelligence. The launch combines Diligent’s leading shareholder activism, voting and corporate governance data (formerly Insightia) with its ESG and executive compensation data, empowering customers to proactively manage shareholder pressures and mitigate governance risks.

With the launch, Diligent’s expanded market intelligence solution now includes data sets covering environmental, social and governance (ESG) and executive compensation with more offerings to come. In times of heightened scrutiny, the expanded data sets will help organizations gain clarity on broader corporate governance topics to better inform their strategy.

“Organizations are increasingly being held accountable to issues beyond the bottom line, and enhanced visibility and market intelligence is a must to stay one step ahead,” said Amanda Carty, Managing Director of ESG and Data Intelligence at Diligent. “Diligent Market Intelligence integrates vital public company and shareholder activity data with Diligent’s leading governance, analytics and ESG solutions to better serve organizations and investors and inform decision making.”

With Diligent Market Intelligence, organizations can stay ahead of a quickly evolving market with the ability to:

• Prepare a winning shareholder engagement strategy ahead of annual meetings with access to complete voting records and policies of investors worldwide.

• Benchmark against peers to understand governance, compensation and stewardship best practices and macro market trends.

• Uncover vulnerabilities to shareholder activism and be prepared to act by leveraging proprietary activism vulnerability scores and analysis.

• Establish stronger corporate governance practices by using corporate defense scoring to discern governance strengths and weaknesses.

• Stay up-to-date on key developments during proxy season and beyond with unrivalled news coverage and expertise from Diligent Market Intelligence’s leading in-house editorial team.

“As an advisor to both companies and investors in critical situations, knowing the company's shareholder base and their voting approach is critical to success,” said Greg Taxin, Managing Member, Spotlight Advisors. “Diligent Market Intelligence provides the data and analytical tools necessary to ensure my clients can plan their campaigns to have maximum impact with shareholders.”

Diligent Expands Its Global Partner Program with the Addition of New Partners Across Asia Pacific, Latin America and North America

Thursday, October 26, 2023

NEW YORK: Diligent, a leading GRC SaaS company, today announced the expansion of its global partner program with the addition of several new partners across Asia Pacific, Latin America and North America. The latest partnerships add to a network of 120 + partners worldwide across the technology, consultancy, sustainability and legal industries that add value to Diligent’s customers and seek to deliver modern governance, risk, compliance, audit and ESG solutions to leading organizations.

“Across the globe, reporting requirements are becoming more rigorous — particularly pertaining to climate and cybersecurity,” said MarKeith Allen, Chief Customer Officer at Diligent. “Now more than ever before, organizations need a well-defined governance, risk and compliance function to drive organizational health. These global partners help us bring leading software and best practices to customers around the world, helping them to drive greater impact and lead with purpose.”

“Companies today are facing an increasing and evolving set of risks, and having an integrated view of those risks is key to long-term health and success,” said Prakash Balebail, CEO and founder of Estuate. “At Estuate, we are always looking to add value to our customers across the globe with innovative technology solutions. As the market leader in GRC software, Diligent was a natural choice to partner with to help our customers manage unforeseen risks, be compliant and drive efficiencies.”

Select organizations Diligent has partnered with recently include:

• aceia — An Australian-based professional services practice that specializes in internal audit and risk management. Through the partnership, Australian and New Zealand customers will benefit from the combination of Diligent’s leading GRC solutions with aceia’s deep internal audit and risk management expertise and advisory services.

• Estuate Inc. — A California-based leading technology services company focused on helping customers maximize their return on investment for GRC initiatives through best-practice led implementation and customer-centric approach. Through Diligent’s partnership with Estuate, business leaders can access leading solutions across governance, risk and compliance to make better decisions more quickly.

• Future Core — A Mexico-based IT and cybersecurity consultancy that advises clients on their path to digital transformation, providing cutting-edge solutions aligned to their business objectives. Through the partnership, Future Core will help its customers mitigate risk and stay ahead of a world that’s constantly changing using Diligent’s best-in-class IT Risk, ESG and Boards & Governance solutions.

• Konesens Development — A leading consultancy offering ESG services including action-oriented training, metrics-based reporting, and sustainable development services to promote equity and inclusion. Konesens' customers can now access Diligent ESG as a preferred comprehensive reporting platform among its suite of tools.

• RARE Sustainability + Advisory — An Australian-based sustainability consultancy that assists companies with ESG strategy and related disclosures. Now, customers can benefit from Diligent’s market-leading ESG data collection and reporting solutions in addition to RARE’s consultancy services, to become better equipped to meet ESG disclosure requirements.

• SUMAQ Financial Communications — A Brazilian-based technology consultancy providing Latin American publicly traded companies with cutting-edge financial communication technologies, so they can maximize productivity and performance while minimizing costs and reducing workloads. Through the partnership, customers looking to adopt software to respond to regulatory demands and enhance governance practices can leverage Diligent as a preferred solution.

• Weave Solutions Inc. — A Philippines-based professional outsourcing company connecting organizations with the best people and digital transformative solutions to achieve operational excellence in their businesses. Diligent’s industry-leading GRC platform is now the solution of choice to help Weave’s clients enhance their corporate governance programs through software.

The Diligent Partner Program is the first to offer partners a single source to meet all their GRC and ESG needs. Through the program, partners can build their GRC and ESG practices by referring and reselling, deploying, customizing, and integrating Diligent’s comprehensive suite of solutions.

More Than 75% of U.S. Companies Cite Climate Change as a Material Risk, According to Diligent

Thursday, June 06, 2024

NEW YORK --In 2023, 76.2% of the 3000 largest U.S. companies mentioned climate change as a risk in their annual financial reports, up from 68.2% a year prior. This is according to the new Diligent Market Intelligence: ESG Engagements in 2024 report from Diligent.

Featuring insights from Glass Lewis and Clarity AI, the report examines how companies can best prepare for new climate-related reporting standards, as well as the rise of workers’ rights activism and nature-related engagements.

“Regulatory developments are revolutionizing how companies globally are held accountable for their ESG policies and practices,” said Josh Black, Editor-in-Chief of Diligent Market Intelligence. “Given the increasing focus on director accountability for ESG, it’s important for leaders to be proactive in addressing ESG-related risks and opportunities.”

Three themes emerge from the report’s key findings that both boards and investors should have on their radar, including:

Companies are preparing for a new climate reporting regime:

• 2024 marks a new frontier for climate reporting, with the finalization of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Climate Rule, as well as emerging regulations from California and the EU.

• An increasing number of U.S companies are identifying climate change as a risk in their corporate disclosures. In 2023, 76.2% of the 3000 largest U.S. companies mentioned climate change as a risk in their 10-K reporting, up from 68.2% a year prior.

• Of the 500 largest U.S. companies, 98.6% voluntarily disclosed Scope 3 emissions in 2022 and/or 2023, while 65.7% of the 3000 largest U.S. companies also provided this disclosure.

Nature-related reporting climbs up the agenda:

• Investors place a high priority on disclosures, as they did with climate before regulators took up the burden. The 10 nature proposals subject to a vote at S&P 500 constituents averaged 24% support in 2023, compared to 65 climate change proposals securing 21% support.

• New reporting frameworks from the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the Science-based Targets Network (SBTN) are set to standardize and bring clarity to nature-related disclosures, while the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has announced its intention to potentially develop related reporting standards.

Labor unions drive engagements on workers’ rights and human capital:

• In Q1 2024, 181 campaigns were launched at U.S.-based companies inclusive of social demands, more than double the 71 environmental campaigns launched in the same period and on track to exceed the 234 social campaigns launched throughout 2023.

• Labor unions are driving social initiatives, pushing companies to enhance workers' rights and freedoms. In Q1 2024, seven social campaigns have been launched globally involving labor unions, the same number as in the entirety of 2023.

Diligent Announces Diligent AI to Empower Governance, Risk and Compliance Professionals to Better Manage and Respond to Risk

Thursday, June 13, 2024

The AI-powered platform enhances risk management through risk disclosure peer analysis, board material summarization, regulatory compliance mapping and more

NEW YORK-- Diligent, a leading GRC SaaS company, today announced Diligent AI, a powerful set of artificial intelligence capabilities within the Diligent One Platform that enhance how organizations understand, anticipate and mitigate risks. Diligent AI will enable users to identify risks, safeguard data and democratize the decision-making processes, driving resilience and empowering organizations with certainty and clarity like never before.

"Company leaders face a dynamic and evolving risk environment. It’s imperative to turn data into strategic intelligence to anticipate and prevent risks, rather than just respond to them,” said Brian Stafford, President and CEO of Diligent. “Diligent’s AI-enhanced platform is uniquely positioned to connect all aspects of governance, risk and compliance, delivering customized insights to elevate governance and clarify risk.”

Diligent AI helps leaders amplify critical insights while working together across the organization, using risk as a shared language. Leaders can expand resources and achieve greater results through integrated automation, enhance stakeholder communication by tailoring information to board members, chief financial officers, chief risk officers and other executives, and enhance decision making by breaking down information silos across governance, risk and compliance (GRC) functions.

Register for the first session in Diligent’s AI webinar series starting on June 13, where Diligent leaders and experts will discuss Diligent AI capabilities and how they:

Elevate Governance for Boards and Leaders:

• Creating efficient, context-aware summaries of board materials to help directors easily digest information and glean insights.

• Providing AI-powered insights into a company’s ESG focus and self-disclosed risk factors, enabling peer comparison and helping to identify industry trends.

• Quickly assisting with boards-related questions through a 24/7 AI-powered virtual assistant.

Clarify Risk for Audit, Risk and Compliance Teams:

• Simplifying the tedious process of mapping internal controls to regulatory requirements, enabling GRC professionals to efficiently demonstrate compliance.

• Identifying changes between two versions of the same regulation, categorizing them as significant, moderate or minor, enabling users to efficiently update related policies, risks and controls.

• Empowering users to create, edit and troubleshoot data integrations and data analytics scripts using plain language. This brings Diligent's powerful robotics capabilities (also known as ACL Analytics) to a broader audience.

Additional capabilities will be added to Diligent AI over the coming months that empower GRC professionals to better mitigate risks and stay on top of changing regulatory requirements, and help corporate directors govern more effectively amidst escalating risks and information overload.

“Diligent AI adds to the breadth of the Diligent One Platform by enabling leaders to more quickly and effectively respond to risk in a competitive environment,” said Phil Lim, Global AI Champion at Diligent. “Our thoughtful and ethical approach to AI use, guided by industry-leading principles, means customers can feel secure in knowing that AI interacts with their data safely and securely, and only with their prior consent.”

The use of Generative AI in GRC must uphold the highest standards of safety and security, and Diligent has committed to the safe, secure and ethical use of AI through its guiding principles. This ensures users’ data stays their own, generated content is clearly labelled and users must always opt-in before using AI with their data. Learn more about Diligent’s AI Principles here.