Reflecting a growing trend, last week The Boeing Co. said it created a new Office of Internal Governance, reporting directly to Phil Condit, chairman and CEO.
Boeing Senior Vice President Bonnie W. Soodik, currently president of Shared Services Group, will head up the new group. In her new role Soodik will have responsibility for: Internal Audit, Ethics, Import-Export Compliance, Foreign Sales Consultants, and Sarbanes-Oxley governance requirements.
"Today's action reflects the full agreement of our board and our senior management team that the commitment to these important areas must be set at the very top," Condit said in a statement. "Creating this key office and putting Bonnie Soodik in charge sends an important message throughout the Boeing organization and to all those with whom we do business: that we will conduct ourselves according to the highest standards in every aspect of our business."
Boeing joins a growing list of companies that have created similar positions.
In recent months, a number of companies have hired individuals as chief governance officers. During the summer, Hershey Foods and Eastman Kodak named CGOs to oversee compliance with corporate governance guidelines and regulations set by Congress, the SEC, and the New York Stock Exchange.
Tenet Healthcare Corp., which has been the subject of a number of government probes, named a chief compliance officer.
Other companies to recently name CGOs include Tyco International Ltd., Walt Disney Co., Pitney-Bowes, Krispy Kreme Donuts, and Sunoco.
"Some companies are indicating to the marketplace a new level of corporate governance is in place," Patrick McGurn, senior vice president at Institutional Shareholder Services, said in a wire service report over the summer. "Others are giving in to a fashionable trend."
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