Nominees for the 2025 Corporate Governance Awards announced

Taking place in New York City on November 6, the gala ceremony will be held at Cipriani 25 Broadway and is expected to be attended by 400 industry professionals from the world of governance, risk and compliance.

The ceremony will follow the Corporate Governance Forum, also on November 6, which will bring together experts to share their insights on the implications of recent market and regulatory changes on the role of governance professionals and provide a platform to share best practices before the end of the year.

Selected by an independent panel of judges, the awards celebrate outstanding achievements by the governance profession in areas such as hosting AGMs, compliance and ethics programs, sustainability reporting, entity management, use of technology, proxy statements, shareholder engagement and corporate transactions.

The full list of nominees follows:

Best AGM
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Robinhood Markets      

Best board assessment program
IBM
Prudential Financial
Regions Financial Corporation         

Best compliance and ethics program
Arm Holdings
DocGo
Dun & Bradstreet Holdings
Kyndryl Holdings
PepsiCo
Robinhood Markets      

Best director training and education program
MetLife
Robinhood Markets
Sallie Mae       

Best global entity management
Payoneer
Prudential Financial
The Huntington National Bank          

Best governance around a corporate transaction
Bunge Global
Kyndryl Holdings
Leidos Holdings
VEON                

Best proxy statement (small cap)
Century Aluminum
Empire State Realty Trust
Gentherm
Minerals Technologies
Veracyte
W&T Offshore              

Best proxy statement (mid-cap)
Best Buy
Healthpeak Properties
Korn Ferry
Murphy Oil Corporation
The Baldwin Insurance Group
The Clorox Company

Best proxy statement (large cap)
Bristol-Myers Squibb
General Motors
Intel Corporation
PepsiCo
The Williams Companies
Thermo Fisher Scientific       

Best shareholder engagement (small to mid-cap)         

Gap
Lumen Technologies
Ralph Lauren                

Best shareholder engagement (large cap)
Chevron Corporation
Fifth Third Bancorp
PepsiCo
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Ventas

Best sustainability reporting (small cap)
AMN Healthcare
Hawaiian Electric
Omnicell                        

Best sustainability reporting (mid-cap)
Bath & Body Works
Dun & Bradstreet Holdings
ExlService Holdings
Kadant
Korn Ferry
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings      

Best sustainability reporting (large cap)
Baker Hughes
Cognizant
Marsh McLennan
Nasdaq
Norfolk Southern
The Williams Companies      

Best use of technology
Graybar
PepsiCo
Prudential Financial
VEON 

Governance professional of the year (small to mid-cap)
Healthpeak Properties - Carol Samaan
Liberty Media Corporation - Kate Jewell*
Sallie Mae - Jeffrey Lipschutz

*Kate Jewell moved to QVC Group in June 2025                   

Governance professional of the year (large cap)
Amgen - Andrea Robinson
Baker Hughes - Fernando Contreras
Booking Holdings - Vijay Iyer
Cognizant - Deepa Rao
Leidos Holdings - Henrique Bertolo Canarim
Sempra - Robert Borthwick

Governance team of the year (small to mid-cap)
Bunge Global
Dow
ExlService Holdings                 

Governance team of the year (large cap)
Baker Hughes
Chevron Corporation
Marvell Technology
PepsiCo
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals             
Robinhood Markets                      

Rising star
Ally Financial  - Dana Sanker
Booking Holdings - Caitlin Kobialka
Salesforce - Nina Mohammed
Sallie Mae - Megan Smagala
Workday - Morgan Lou

Lifetime achievement
Ally Financial - Hope Mehlman

This year’s judging panel comprised:

• Anna Catalan, a member of the board of directors, HF Sinclair Corporation, Frontdoor, Ecovyst and Hexion
• Joan Conley, board member, Tigo Energy
• Matt Geekie, SVP, secretary and general counsel, Graybar
• Eileen Kamerick, non-executive director, Associated Banc-corp, ACV Auctions, Valic Company and chairman of the board for Legg Mason Closed End Funds
• Alex Wisnewski, VP of proxy voting and governance, BNY
• Natalie Bannerman, senior reporter, Governance Intelligence
• Laurie Havelock, editor, Governance Intelligence.

The team at Governance Intelligence would like to wish all this year’s nominees the best of luck for the Corporate Governance Awards. We look forward to seeing you in November!

More information about the awards and the ceremony can be found by clicking here.