Williamson

Though many high-profile companies like Dell, Charles Schwab and Disney have recently separated their chairman and CEO roles, last week three companies announced they would do the opposite.

$1.4 billion print and supply-chain firm Banta, and $180 million industrial company Ampco-Pittsburgh

were among the companies combining the chairman and CEO roles. The other was $5.8 billion energy company Dynegy, which announced Bruce A. Williamson would hold the combined titles. All three announcements were tied to chairman retirements; only Dynegy mentioned the appointment of a lead director.

According governance watchdog The Corporate Library, 76 percent of S&P 500 CEO chair their own boards; however, that number is 4 percent lower than the previous year. Research Pillsbury Winthrop confirms the TCL data, noting that companies splitting the roles are citing best practices in corporate governance as their motivation. Another motivator: institutional investors. According to Stephen Davis of Davis Global Advisors, earlier this year Barclays Global Investors made a "sharp but unpublicized change in its default proxy voting guidelines." For the first time, the $1.1 trillion fund manager pledged to cast votes in favor of dissident shareowner resolutions asking companies to split the top two posts.

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