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BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently made a splash by threatening to vote against corporate managers who don’t disclose an array of non-financial information as directed by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. But what is SASB, and where is this all going? Michael Bloomberg founded SASB in 2011 as a shadow regulator for his policy agenda. SASB claims to be modelled on the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), a nonprofit with the imprimatur of the Securities and Exchange Commission that regulates how corporations account for and disclose financial information. SASB’s nine-member standards board issues guidelines for what kinds of sustainability information...

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was elected Tuesday to serve on the board of directors of prominent investment company Berkshire Hathaway. In doing so, Gates will serve as an advisor to longtime friend and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. In a statement, Gates said he hoped his years of experience at Microsoft would prove to be of value to Berkshire's shareholders. "I am delighted and honored to have been asked to serve on the board of this very successful company," Gates said. Gates also serves on the board of Bothell, Wash.-based biotech company Icos. Despite being close to Gates, Buffett has...

<p>Conrad Black has no intention of making good on his pledge to begin paying back millions in fees to Hollinger International, The Post has learned.</p> <p>Black, the ousted head of newspaper giant Hollinger, has indicated to the company that he will not make a payment of $850,000 that is due Jan. 19, according to sources familiar with the matter.</p>

Dark times surround Conrad Black, business newsmaker of the year TORONTO (CP) - His biggest news may still lie ahead of him, but Conrad Black has been anointed by newspaper and broadcast editors as the first notable to be named The Canadian Press business newsmaker of the year. Unfortunately for the hard-pressed media magnate who for a time dealt with Canadian newspapers like Monopoly-game properties, the honour carries no cash - and no "get out of jail free" card. Black, 59, dominated voting for business newsmaker of 2003 in a survey of newspaper editors and broadcasters by CP and Broadcast...

A QUICK QUIZ. What does a company bleeding red ink in the cutthroat PC industry do with spare cash that it nets from laying off its employees and outsourcing the jobs to India?* Answer: HP goes shopping! Yes, HP, that computing once-giant that appears to be busily shedding its staff as fast as the new 9500 series can print out pink slips in vividly color matched shades is on a shopping spree. And what's HP buying? Executoys of course.

First stock options, then earnings guidance, and now taxes on dividends. America's most successful investor has taken positions on key issues that could harm businesses and their shareholders. According to our latest Billionaires List, Warren Buffett is the world's second-richest person. He got that way by being a very savvy investor. However, it seems that the severe bear market, the dozen or so corporate scandals that have taken place in recent years, and the "unfair" distribution of wealth have convinced Mr. Buffett that systemic reforms are required, that corporate managements cannot be trusted and that the double taxation of corporate...

Investors' faith in the securities markets will not return unless and until corporate Directors can be held accountable for their actions, e.g., voted out of office and replaced by candidates nominated by Shareholders. The Committee of Concerned Shareholders has filed Petition for Rulemaking (SEC File No. 4-461) with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Petition seeks a rule change whereby ALL Shareholders would be permitted to nominate Director-candidates and the names of those persons would appear on the Company's ballot. http://www.ConcernedShareholders.com

WASHINGTON - Seven months after Enron Corp. went broke, a new regime of governance and oversight is settling in that could help the nation begin to surmount a rare period of economic malaise. Thursday's congressional passage of the biggest tightening of corporate regulation since the 1930s is expected to help restore at least a modicum of shaken trust in the quality of corporate bookkeeping. At the same time, the sight of executives from Adelphia Communications being hauled off in handcuffs this week sends a signal that new levels of accountability are, in fact, more than just rhetoric. Some are even...

A well-respected economist tells Rotarians that a Federal Reserve model shows stocks are undervalued07/26/02 Donald Ratajczak said he does not expect the stock market’s slide to continue much longer. “My gut feeling is that the market is bottoming out,” the well-respected economist told members of the Rome Rotary Club on Thursday. “We will be able to tell in a couple of days if Wednesday’s rally (when the Dow Jones industrial average regained more than 490 points) was enough to stabilize this market,” Ratajczak said. If the market has found the bottom, it spent much of Thursday skipping along it, with...

Ever since Enron melted down late last year the press and congressional committees have been on a steady witch-hunt to find similar corporate sneaks and the occasional Mr. Burns. And hey, to be fair the business world isn't the only institution having problems. Just ask the boys running the Catholic Church about management problems. By the time the stock markets closed this past Friday, it marked the fifth consecutive week of downturns. Sure the markets haven't hit that post-September 11 low yet, but they are trying as hard as they can. Terrorist warnings and Mid-East uncertainty surely aren't helping either,...