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: [email protected] Twitter: @benesjp ___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

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