Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-281) and index.

Machine generated contents note: 1.Your First Board -- How Do You Find That First Seat at the Boardroom Table? -- What Is Governance? -- Nothing More Challenging -- Types of Board Opportunities -- What Does It Take to Become a Director? -- Joining My First or Next Board of Directors -- Director Searches from a Skills-Driven Process -- 2.Being an Effective Director -- Who Owns and Controls a Corporation? -- Don't be Sleazy, Sloppy, or Naive -- Independence and Independent-Minded -- Conflicts of Interest and Related-Party Transactions -- The Role of the Board of Directors as a Whole -- Tools and Techniques for Protecting Directors from Liability -- Nine Simple Low-Cost Tips for Liability Protection -- Your First Big City Board Meeting and a Major Test -- 3.The Royal Road to Exemplary Directorship -- The Impact of Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and Dodd-Frank Act on Board Committees -- Board Tools and Structures to Improve Committee Performance -- Specific Committees in Action

Note continued: Other Board/Committee Efficiency Issues and Tools -- Case Study: New Era Faces the Future -- 4.The Importance of Finance to Exemplary Directorship -- Audits -- The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) and Enterprise Risk -- Overview of Financial Statements -- Form 10-K, MD&A, CD&A, Form 8-K, Annual Report and Key Financial Ratios -- The Numbers Don't Lie -- 5.Public Company Reporting -- American Securities Regulation and the SEC -- Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and Greed in America -- Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) -- Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) -- Proxy Advisory Services -- Case Study: General Motors Gets a New CEO -- 6.Achieving Excellence in Governance -- Best Practices in Governance -- Benchmarking -- CEO Commitment and Board Leadership -- Governance Evaluations and Improvement -- Board and CEO Succession Planning Today -- Case Study: Directors Who Made a Difference at Ford Motor Company

Note continued: 7.Activist Shareholders and Their Role in Governance -- Why Do Activist Shareholders Take on Public Companies? -- Activist War Stories and Board Battles -- If It Is Not Working at the Top -- Case Study: Pre-paid Legal Services, Inc., and the SEC.