ESG in the Boardroom

Katayun I. Jaffari, Partner, Cozen O'Connor, Philadelphia, PA Katayun I. Jaffari devotes her practice to the handling of complex securities transactions for businesses in a variety of industries, including biotechnology, energy and technology. She has broad experience in business finance, including public offerings, stock-for-stock mergers, private placements of common stock and offerings of convertible notes. Her practice also includes business counseling, capital raising, and mergers and acquisitions. Ms. Jaffari is a partner in the business and finance department and a member of five practice groupssecurities, life sciences and technology, employee benefits and executive compensation, energy and project finance, and mergers and acquisitions/private equity. Ms. Jaffari is a graduate of George Washington University Law School (J.D., 1995). She also holds degrees from Temple University (M.B.A., 1992; B.B.A., 1991). 0214 Stephen A. Pike is a Toronto-based Partner at the Gowling WLG law firm and is co-leader of the Gowling WLG Canadian ESG Advisory Services practice. As a senior legal advisor to Canadian, American, and global businesses, Stephen regularly provides advice on corporate law and governance, ESG, transactional, operational, and risk management issues, including CSR, supply chain, regulatory compliance, product distribution, marketing, licensing, and manufacturing, as well as product liability matters. He also advises businesses outside of Canada on setting up or acquiring operations in Canada and bringing products and services into the Canadian market. Stephen is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Commission of Jurists—Canada; a Co-Chair of the ESG Joint Subcommittee of the Corporate Governance Committee and the Federal Regulation of Securities Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association; and serves on the Finance, Audit and Risk Management Committee of the Canadian Cancer Society. He writes and speaks frequently on ESG issues and how businesses can address the risk of modern slavery, forced labor, and child labor in their operations and supply chains. He regularly speaks about modern slavery in supply chains to business and legal organizations and has spoken to meetings of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), Women Get on Board, the Ontario Bar Association, Governance Professionals of Canada Canadian Corporate Counsel Association, the American Bar Association, and the Canadian Center for Ethics and Corporate Policy. Stephen has written a 13-part series on insights for Canadian CEOs and directors on addressing forced labour in their businesses and supply chains. He has also co-authored three chapters, namely “Managing Reputational Risk,” “Enterprise Risk Management,” and “Governing the Multinational Enterprise,” of the Director’s Handbook—A Field Guide to 101 Situations Commonly Encountered in the Boardroom, published by the American Bar Association. He is a member of the Program Faculty of the Osgoode Hall Law School PD Certificate Course in ESG, Climate Risk and the Law. Stephen successfully completed the Directors Education Program offered by the Institute of Corporate Directors and the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, and received the ICD.D designation.