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Provider Council
Minutes of call on 8 March 2007
On call:
Mary Carter KPMG (Chair), Alan Judes (Strategic Remuneration), Chris Mowatt
(HBOS), Julie Shepherd (Computershare), Juan Bonilla Cuatrecases, Renee
Trotta (Charles Schwab), Paul Randall (Ashursts), Valerie Diamond (Baker &
McKenzie), Veena Bhatia (Stock Option Solutions), Brenda Tan (Deloitte),
Lynette Jacobs (Pinsent Masons)
Apologies if anyone who was on the call has been missed off – and apologies too
for the horrible echo on the line.
Circulation – Provider Council, GEO Board and Web site.
Matters discussed:
- Chapters and one dayers etc:
- Hong Kong – half day conference on 27 March 2007
- Registrations already received from around 35 people already
- A few spaces are left – would be good to have a few more issuers
- Australian events – Melbourne (28th Feb) and Sydney (1st March)
- Reasonable attendance at both (27 and 35 respectively)
- Chapters
- Spanish Chapter - Inaugural meeting in Barcelona a few weeks ago with
24 attendees, very well received. Juan Bonilla Cuatrecases said that the
majority of the attendees were issuers – mostly multinational companies
plus some Spanish head quartered companies.. Per Juan the intention is
to organise another meeting in Barcelona later in the year (probably
September) and a meeting in Madrid in, possibly May 2007.
- French Chapter – Discussions are in process to have a chapter meeting
sometime this year
- Netherlands chapter – the next meeting is in the process of being
organised and the current time frame is hoped to be in the first week of
April.
- The London Chapter is also organising the next event and details will be
forthcoming shortly.
- USA Chapters:
- The Northern California chapter had a good meeting in January. Brenda Tan mentioned that the issuer attendance had been around 60% to 70%. The next meeting is fixed for 20 March and the objective is to try and have a meeting every two months.
- The Mid West chapter have moved to conference calls (similar to the Dach chapter). Valerie Diamond mentioned that going forward having Chapter meetings in the Mid West in the form of “Webinars” might be helpful in order to spread the attendance further. The content for the next call is being considered.
- The Boston Chapter is in the process of scheduling some dates for meetings
It was noted that if anyone has ideas for chapter meetings in “new” locations, then please let, Phil Ainslie of Lloyds TSB [
] (Phil chairs the GEO chapters’ committee) or Mary Carter know. Similarly if anyone wishes to be involved in existing local chapter organisation etc (whether in relation to possible topics, event locations or anything else) please contact the relevant Chapter coordinator (details on the web site)
Alan Judes wondered whether there might be interest in the UK for either a
Chapter Meeting (or a web seminar) geared towards Property companies which
were planning to convert to Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS), bearing in
mind that the nature of the share capital and rights under it post conversion to a
REIT would be rather different than before which might have an impact on
employee equity ownership. Mary Carter agreed to pass this idea through to
Nicholas Greenacre of White & Case (London chapter coordinator - done) Alan
also mentioned he was happy to be involved in such a session but also noted it
would give a good opportunity to target property companies as potential GEO
members.
In the context of the Webinars approach suggested by Valerie Diamond, these
could either be geared to Chapter level events or as GEO Web seminars (or both
to get maximum coverage). If any provider has ideas on suitable topics for such
Web seminars these should be fed through to Jean Ulrich (GEO Events Director).
As a reminder the details of Events and Chapter meetings are noted on the web
site as and when they are scheduled – so worth keeping an eye on the website
so as not to miss anything.
- Membership statistics
The total membership is now around 2,400. The split is now very nearly 50/50
issuers to providers which is a massive change from a few years ago, and issuer
numbers continue to increase.
Objective is now to try and get a similar (or better) ratio for all the GEO events –
whether conference, chapters or one dayers.
Agreed actions – Providers to consider whether they can include details of the
GEO website (and perhaps upcoming events) on external publications and fact
sheets, ie to further increase, in particular, issuer awareness of GEO and
encourage them to access the website etc. Mary Carter agreed to provide some
illustrative wording which might be used for that purpose – to follow..
- Update on June Conference
Brochure
- A number of attendees had received the brochure and those that had agreed
that it looked terrific
- It was noted that some providers might find extra copies useful to send out to issuer contacts with a personal cover note. Mary Carter undertook to find out whether there were spares available – and is waiting to hear back from Pam Stetson at GEO on this. If any providers would like to receive extra paper copies they should contact Pam Stetson [
] to find out if there are spares and to give details of how many extra copies they would ideally like.
- It was also noted that the evening and other events looked great (and many
thanks to the Sponsors) – but that numbers would be limited for the House of
Lords reception – a good reason to register early!
Speaker confirmations
- These are in the process of being sent out (there was a technical glitch
which caused a bit of a delay in getting these out).
- Speakers need to register for the conference within a couple of weeks [in
fact by 16 March 2007] and so will also have the benefit of early
registration discount.
Provider Council Meeting at the conference
- It was agreed that this would be a good idea if timing permits. This is being
explored – the likely timing for such a meeting would be around
lunchtime/early afternoon on Wednesday 27 June. If this is feasible details
will follow shortly. (As noted in a previous call Issuers will also be having a
separate meeting)
GEO Awards.
- Submission of entries for these will be capable of being done by electronic
means instead of via paper if desired
- Details will be launched on the GEO web site over the next week or so.
The dead line for entries is 4 May 2007 (this is a firm deadline) as the
judging panel meet a couple of days later. General message is to try and
encourage as many issuers as possible to enter.
Booths
- Prroviders who have applied for booths should try and register as early as
possible as the prime slots in terms of location will be allocated on a first
come first served basis.
Hotel accommodation
- For providers who will need accommodation in London – please if possible try
and book in the conference hotel – the more GEO bookings there are the
more economic it is for GEO – which helps keep conference and other GEO
related costs (including membership fees) down.
Early Registration Discount
- NB Early registration discount for registrations prior to 30 April 2007
- Any other Business – there was none
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