News: News From The CGFT

• 2009 Turkey’s first Investor Relations Awards are presented to the winners.

  Turkey’s first Investor Relations Awards are presented to the winners on the 29th of May. Melsa Ararat, the director of CGFT, who was in the jury handed out the Corporate Governance Disclosure Award to Turkcell.  Ararat noted that the jury did not award a 2nd and 3rd place due to lack of good examples. To read Melsa Ararat’s speech click here.

• Sabanci University Corporate Governance Forum issued the ‘2009 International Institutional Investors’ Voting Behavior’ Report

  CGFT issued the first report on the voting behavior of International Institutional Investors.  Written by Melsa Ararat (Sabancı University) and Burçin Yurtoğlu (University of Vienna and Sabancı University), the report covers 72 countries including Turkey . CGFT will collaborate with Broadridge, the global  proxy execution firm, to continue to observe the voting behavior of investors in ISE fırms.  

  Press Release (in Turkish)

  2009 Report (in Turkısh)

• French Development Agency (AFD) and Dünya Gazette are hosting the 2009 Conference on ‘Opportunities and Development Challenges for SMEs, Promoting Sustainable Growth.’ ( 8-9 April )

The conference hosted by AFD and Dünya will feature speakers from France and Turkey, renowned for their contribution to and expertise on the topic. Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum’s director Melsa Ararat will join AFD’s Chief Financial Economist Pierre JACQUET and senior managers from TEB and Halk Bank to speak and discuss the role of ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ in sustainable development. Melsa Ararat’s article published in Corporate Governance, the International Journal of Business in Society had won the Emerald Literati Excellence Award.  The conference will be opened by Nazım Ekren, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, and Christine LAGARDE, minister of economy for France. Conference program is available via the link:

          Conference Program

• Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum issued the research report on the 'Transparency and Governance of Turkey's Banks listed in ISE'

  Press Release

  Transparency and Governance of Turkish Banks

• Melsa Ararat is on the selection panel of 2009 Turkey Investor Relations Award 

  Turkey’s first International Relations Awards will be given this year. The Awards will be announced on the 28th May. Melsa Ararat, the director of SU’s Corporate Governance Forum is on the selection panel which will meet in April to start the evaluation of the companies short listed by Thomson Reuters.

  For more information please visit http://www.irawards.eu/final/index.html

• 2. International Corporate Governance Conference

  The 2. International Corporate Governance Conference organized by the Turkish Corporate Governance Associaton will take place on the 14-15 January at Pera Museum. Melsa Ararat, the director of Sabancı University’s Corporate Governance Forum will be speaking in a special session on the ‘ Corporate Governance Score of Turkey’ on the second day of the conference.

  Click here for the Conference Web site

• II. International Conference on Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets

  The Second International Conference organized by the Emerging Markets Corporate Governance Network will take place in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The First Conference was hosted by CGFT, Sabanci University in November 2007. CGFT director Melsa Ararat has been the coordinator of the Network since 2007. Coppead Graduate Business School at the Federal University of Rio de Janerio and  the  Getúlio Vargas Foundation Law School  will host the Second Conference.

  Conference Program and Accepted Papers

  Call for Papers

  

• Melsa Ararat is elected to the Awards Committee of the International Corporate Governance Network.

  The criteria against which the ICGN Award is made takes into account whether or not the candidate has made:

  • Exceptional achievements in the corporate governance field.
  • Contributions to significant improvements of corporate governance practices in one or more jurisdiction.
  • A positive impact with long term significance on one or more economies.
  • Success in confronting frustrating actions to corporate governance, requiring vision, courage and fortitude.
  • Enhancement of their future corporate governance initiatives through such recognition by the ICGN.

  The awards are given since 2001; the first receivers being Adrian Cadbury (UK), Ira Millstein (USA) and  Professor Hasung Jang (Korea) . For more information, please see the ICGN Web site.

  http://www.icgn.org/organisation/committee_membership.php?name=AWC

• 9th Workshop on Corporate Governance and Investment

         9. European Workshop on Corporate Governance and Investments will be hosted by CGFT(7-8 November).

          Workshop Program and Papers

• CGFT announced the results of 2008 Turkish Firms Disclosure Survey

  CGFT has completed the fourth year study of the disclosure practices of Turkish firms and announced the results to the press on the 18th of September 2008.  The study is a joint effort of S&P and CGFT. The report of this years’ study is published by S&P on its’ Rating Direct Web site. The study notes that the improvement in the disclosure levels of Turkish Companies has converged around IFRS and no improvement is reported since last years’ study.

  2008 Report on Disclosure Practices of Turkish Firms

  Press Release(In Turkish)

• Sabanci University Corporate Governance Forum(CGFT) supports the International Workshop on Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets  at Yale University

  CGFT supports the Workshop on Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets sponsored by IFC’s Global Corporate Governance Forum (GCGF) and sponsored and hosted by Yale University’s Millsetin Center for Corporate Governance and Performance. CGFT has been provided with a grant by the GCGF to support the process of commissioning research on its behalf. Commissioned papers which were selected through a competitive process will be presented on 19-20 September at Yale.
  
  Workshop Program
  
  

• Call for Papers - 9th European Workshop on Corporate Governance and Investment (7-8 November 2008, Sabancı University)
  Submission Deadline extension: 29th June

The 9th European Workshop on Corporate Governance and Investments will be hosted by Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey (CGFT) at Sabancı University, Faculty of Management on 7-8 November 2008. The details can be found in the attached document.

Call for Papers

• Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey (CGFT) Continues to Analyse the Current Events (January 2008)
  

The article “Different Approaches to Differentiating 'Better Governed' Companies - Market Segmentation in BOVESPA and Rating Based Indexing in ISE” written by Melsa Ararat with Burçin Yurtoğlu from University of Vienna, was one of the top downloaded articles in Emerging Markets - Finance section of Social Science Research Network (SSRN) electronic library.  SSRN is the most prestigious and biggest e-library which contains articles and publications on business administration, law and economics. A popular version of the article is  published by Internationa Finance Corporaton (IFC) Corporate Governance Forum in  Focus series and can be downloaded from http://www.gcgf.org.

• Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey (CGFT) hosted the first International Research Conference on "Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets" (20 November 2007)
  
  The conference has been an activity of Emerging Markets Corporate Governance Network (EMCGN) with the attendance of 145 researchers from 30 countries. Having been organized by the Global Corporate Governance Forum (GCGF)  and Asian Institute Corporate Governance (AICG) and endorsed by Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey (CGFT),  Yale University Millstein Governance Center, European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN),  the conference has brought together the world's leading scientists such as Randall Mork, Stijn Claessens and Bernard Black with emerging countries' researchers and scientists. Articles presented during the conference were focused on governance issues in emerging countries and the relationship between political power and governance systems. Melsa Ararat,  the chair of the organizing committee  and also the coordinator of EMCGN has announced that the next conference is planned to be held in 2009. The bookproceedings  which will  include summaries of sessions  and a conference synthesis report is planned to be published in the second  quarter of 2008 by the Global Corporate Governance Forum.
  
  For details and downloading papers, presentations and video recording please click here.
  

 

• Special Session on Turkey at the International Research Conference on "Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets" (20 November 2007)

Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey organized a special session on Turkey during the International Research Conference on "Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets" on the 15th November 2007.  Six papers were presented and discussed during the session which brought together the Turkish researchers from local and international research institutions. The diversity of the papers was an indication of the growing interest on corporate governance research on Turkey.

Call for papers for the special session

• "Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey (CGFT) Research Associate Program" (20 November 2007)

Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey has been working on developing collaboration among local and international researchers working on Corporate Governance in Turkey since its inception. Acknowledging the upsurge of research in Turkey on the topic, the Forum decided to hold a meeting to explore the idea of a research associate program.  18 researchers from Turkey and international community attended a meeting on the 15th of November 2008 in Sabancı University. Proposed program guidelines were well received by the 18 participants. The purpose of the program is to promote both theoretical and empirical research on Corporate Governance in Turkey, disseminate working papers and research, and encourage collaboration within the network.

Invitation Letter

Research Associate Program Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum 

• The report on "Business and Social Development"  workshop is published (29-31 March 2007)

Corporate Governance Forum hosted an International Network event in March 2007 in cooperation with the British Council. The Network Event brought together young leaders from all over Europe including Sabancı University alumni to discuss the role of business in social development. Supported by FMAN faculty (Melsa Ararat, Ahmet Öncü ve Cenk Koçaş) the Istanbul event included real life investigations at Nejat Eczacıbaşı Foundation on the role of philanthropy, at Petrol-İş on TÜPRAŞ privatization, at TGSD on social standards in textile industry,at KAGİDER on the role of women entrepreneurs and at an advertisement agency on the role of marketing.   

 Report on İstanbul Network Effect on "Business and Social Development"

 

 

• Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey (CGFT) is hosting British Council's Network Effect event which brings together "Future Leaders of Europe" (29-31 March 2007)
  
  50 European young men and women came together to discuss the Role of Business in Social Development at Sabancı University. Organized by British Council, Istanbul meeting is on of the series of meetings which aims to bring together the future leaders of Europe. Participants commit to staying in touch as active members of the European society. The provocation paper for the meeting is written by Melsa Ararat, the director of Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey. Ahmet Öncü and Cenk Koçaş form the faculty of management will support the initiative as moderators.
  
  Provocation paper
  
  
  
  
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