Something significant happened in January 2026 that most people outside of Wall Street barely noticed. JPMorgan Asset Management — one of the largest asset managers on the planet, with voting rights over thousands of publicly listed companies — quietly cut ties with its proxy advisory firms. No more ISS. No more Glass Lewis. Instead, it launched an internal AI tool called Proxy IQ, designed to analyse data from over 3,000 annual company meetings and generate voting recommenda

In the UAE, corporate governance has entered a new era. Governance frameworks have long been aligned to publicly listed, regulated entities (such as financials and international corporations). Family-run privately held organizations and businesses often took a more informal approach to governance. However, this is changing quickly due to heightened regulation, global investor demand, and increased visibility into the markets will push UAE private companies to Institute strong

Introduction The AI Race Has a Leadership Problem Nobody Is Talking About The meeting had been going for forty minutes. The CEO was asking a simple question — "What does our AI strategy actually look like across the business?" — and the room had gone quiet in that particular way rooms go quiet when nobody wants to be the first to admit they don't have a clean answer. The CTO spoke about infrastructure. The CDO spoke about data pipelines. The head of digital spoke about three

(Pic: Dr Heval Mehta giving a welcome note) Dubai, UAE – 13 February 2026 – At a time when boardrooms across the Gulf are undergoing their most significant governance overhaul in a generation, a room full of Dubai's senior business leaders gathered for an unusual proposition: not to learn how to lead, but to find out if they are ready to govern. What is a Board Readiness Seminar, and why does it matter in the GCC? A Board Readiness Seminar is a structured governance assessme

The appointment of Abhay Maheshwari as an independent director at Teravon Green Energies Limited. highlights a broader shift in how senior executives are moving into board-level governance roles in India. Maheshwari’s appointment reflects rising demand for experienced independent directors The appointment was noted earlier this month by the Directors’ Institute – World Council of Directors through its professional network called Global Community For Board Directors . Whil

Some announcements mark a moment. This one marks a movement. Directors' Institute – World Council of Directors, a World Development Corporation initiative and one of the most respected board governance institutions in the world, has entered into a landmark strategic collaboration with INSEAD — the institution ranked as the world's most trusted learning partner and the #1 provider of Custom Programmes by the Financial Times. The result is a co-branded initiative: the Directors

SEBI Governance Reforms: Why Market Infrastructure Governance Is Becoming Critical Governance reforms by Securities and Exchange Board of India are not only about stricter regulation. They show how important market infrastructure stability has become for modern capital markets. Market infrastructure organisations are not normal business companies. They work as the operational foundation of financial trading, settlement processing and accurate ownership recording inside the ec

1. Introduction – Governance Challenge in the Digital Age Corporate governance is entering a new phase as business leadership itself is transforming quietly but deeply. For many decades, board responsibility was mainly associated with financial accuracy, compliance supervision and strategic approval of organisational direction. Technology was usually treated as a supporting operational function managed by internal teams, external service providers, or specialised technical de

For a long time, investors believed the numbers told the whole story. Revenue, margins, earnings per share — that was enough. But financial statements don’t produce themselves. People produce them. And people operate within a culture. The “Social” in ESG is not about charity or branding. It is about human capital, incentives, leadership tone, and workplace norms. It is about whether employees feel safe reporting issues, whether finance teams are pressured to “make the numbers