The Purpose of Corporate Governance

 An accomplished legal practitioner with a career spanning over 15 years, Jamie Hurewitz serves as general counsel and member of the executive team at eSSENTIAL Accessibility in Toronto. In this role, Jamie Hurewitz provides business strategy and market operations advice to the company, as well as overseeing its commercial contracting process, risk strategy, and corporate governance.

Corporate governance refers to the system by which a corporation is directed and controlled. At its core, an effectively implemented corporate governance system ensures the long-term operation and growth of a company through accountability to shareholders, transparency, and reassurance that all actions taken align with the best interests of the shareholders. For this reason, corporate governance is essentially the duty of the board of directors.

Each member of the board undergoes auditing and is appointed based on a binding contract that involves them pledging to adhere to federal laws as well as corporate rules specified by the shareholders and provide pertinent reports for scrutiny as and when due. If the rules contradict the opinion or incentive of the board of directors, the board must voluntarily comply regardless. This gives business owners and investors the peace of mind that the business is operated in their best interest.

Corporate governance spawned from the need to mitigate financial risk to shareholders due to the actions of the board of directors. In the past, some businesses failed due to malpractice by the board of directors that was sometimes unknown to shareholders until significant lawsuits emerged. It appears that the shareholders are the ones who feel the adverse effect of these penalties the most.