‘Corporate governance helps companies grow’

The need for proper governance is perhaps the paramount lesson of the 2008 financial crisis — one the regulators worldwide are now trying to address to prevent a repeat. Ludo Van der Heyden, a corporate governance and strategy professor at INSEAD business school, gave a talk on the subject at the American University of Beirut last month, having been invited  by the Rami Makhzoumi chair in corporate governance. Executive sat with Van der Heyden to talk about corporate governance in the Middle East.   Is there a correlation between solid corporate governance practices and the financial performance of a company?  More and more research shows that good governance leads to good performance, but that is not always the case. Value creation is not typically done by the board [of directors] but by executives. The board’s first job is value preservation and making sure that no irrational decision is made. In