About The Firm
Corporate Governance Advisors
SPNorman & Co. advises Board Chairmen, General Counsels, Corporate Secretaries and Governance committees on the establishment of effective Governance Practices for Boards of Directors. These advisory services include guidance with respect to the recruitment or "building" of a Board, the identification of Directors with relevant skills and experience, the establishment of Board Committees with effectively designed Charters, the development of appropriate Governance Principles for the Board of Directors, the design of effective meeting formats and schedules, methods of periodically evaluating the effectiveness of the Board and recommendations with respect to all aspects to Director compensation.
The Principal
Stephen P. Norman is the President of the firm. He is the former Secretary and Corporate Governance Officer of American Express Company, positions which he held for many years and under different Board Chairmen. He is a former Chairman & Chief Excecutive Officer of the Society for Corporate Governance, the former Chair of two of the Society's national committees and a former member of the NYSE proxy Working Group. He is currently Chair of the Independent Steering committee of Broadridge which monitors a substantial portion of the U.S. shareholder proxy business.
Since the early 1980's Mr. Norman has played a prominent role in the evolution and implementation of the governance and shareholder relations practices of U.S. corporations. He has also been an innovator, authoring two new solutions for the securities industry:
- The 1983 creation of Non-Objecting Beneficial Owner ("NOBO") status that permits corporations to communicate directly with their consenting retail street-name shareholders.
- The 2007 creation of the concept of Client Directed Voting - also called Standing Voting Instructions - to enable retail shareholders to communicate their voting preferences directly to their brokers or custodians.
Mr. Norman is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law