Introduction: When Governance Rhythm No Longer Matches Business Reality Not long ago, the board calendar itself provided a sense of certainty. Strategy reviews were annual. Risks were reviewed quarterly. Decisions followed orderly agendas and predictable cycles. That rhythm worked because the world outside the boardroom moved at a comparable pace. Today, it doesn’t. Markets pivot in weeks, sometimes days. Technology reshapes entire industries between board meetings. Regulator

A few years ago, most CHROs could afford to treat shareholder proposals as someone else’s problem. They lived with Legal, surfaced briefly in a Compensation Committee deck, and were handled largely through technical arguments about disclosure, thresholds, or procedure. HR might be asked for data or a quick point of view—but rarely to lead. That world is gone. Today, shareholder proposals are landing squarely in the middle of conversations about how companies pay people, rewar