Corporate Governance Awards
Celebrating excellence

*Scoring selected categories

Biography to follow.

Ms. Conley has served as a Senior Advisor on Corporate Governance & ESG Programs at Nasdaq, Inc., since December 2020. In December 2020, Ms. Conley retired from her role as the Senior Vice President and Corporate Secretary following nineteen years at Nasdaq, Inc., responsible for Corporate Governance Global Ethics and Corporate Compliance, and the Nasdaq Educational Foundation. Ms. Conley also served a founding Board Member of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center ( 2014 to 2020). Prior to joining Nasdaq, Inc. in 2001, Ms. Conley was the Senior Vice President and Corporate Secretary) (1994 to 2001) and the Director of Human Resources (1986-1994) at NASD (now FINRA).

In 2021, Ms. Conley was elected to the Board of EJF Acquisition Corp.  (Lead Independent Director and Chair of the Governance Committee) and Tigo Energy.

Ms. Conley is a member of the Society of Corporate Governance Professionals, Extraordinary Women on Boards the Advisory Board of the Harvard Law School Corporate Governance Forum and the Economic Club of Washington D.C. Ms. Conley received a BA in Economics from Dominican University and an MS in Industrial & Labor Relations from Loyola University of Chicago. Ms. Conley studied Economics at London School of Economics.

*Scoring selected categories

Lucy oversees AIG’s global legal, compliance and regulatory groups. She is also global head of communications and government affairs.

Prior to joining AIG, Ms Fato was managing director, head of the Americas and general counsel of Nardello & Co, a global private investigative firm, where she remains on the advisory board.

Previously, Ms Fato was executive vice president and general counsel of S&P Global. Prior to that, Ms Fato was deputy general counsel and corporate secretary at Marsh & McLennan Companies. Ms Fato began her legal career at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell where she spent 14 years, including five as a partner in the capital markets group.

Ms Fato is a member of the Department of Financial Services state insurance advisory board and a member of the Life Insurance Council of NY board of directors.

From 2018-2021, Ms Fato was included in NACD Directorship magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the boardroom community. In 2015 and 2017, she was named by Ethisphere magazine as one of the ‘Attorneys Who Matter’ for her dedication to furthering corporate ethics.

Ms Fato serves on the board of directors of Advocates for Children of New York, a non-profit organization that works to ensure a high-quality education for children who are at risk for school-based discrimination or academic failure. She also serves on the board of directors of the Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation, the board of trustees of the Randall’s Island Park Alliance and is as a member of the board of the Coalition for the Homeless, the nation’s oldest advocacy and direct service organization helping homeless men, women and children.

Matthew W Geekie is senior vice president, secretary and general counsel at Graybar, an employee-owned Fortune 500 distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products. Over the course of his 34-year career, Matt has developed broad-based experience in management, strategic planning, corporate governance and risk management, human resources and M&A. His extensive educational background, proven leadership skills and strategic vision enable him to achieve optimal business results.

Matt began his career in 1987 as a trial attorney defending product liability lawsuits. He took his first in-house position with Siegel-Robert, a family-owned, tier-one supplier to the automotive industry in 1992. While at Siegel-Robert, Matt expanded his skill sets to include labor and employment, as well as M&A. Returning to private practice in 1997 at Peper Martin, Matt built on his M&A experience, began securities work and continued advising clients in the areas of employment and labor relations. In 2000, Matt moved to Emerson Electric as associate general counsel for the Emerson Process Management group of companies. At Emerson, he continued to hone his skills, while taking on responsibilities in corporate governance, export and import compliance and international law. In 2005, Matt became general counsel and secretary of a Berkshire Hathaway company, XTRA Lease, where he became involved in transportation and logistics.

Graybar hired Matt as its associate general counsel in February 2008 with the intent of his succeeding to his current role, which occurred within six months of his hire. In August of 2008, Matt was elected to Graybar’s board of directors and named senior vice president, secretary and general counsel. He sits on Graybar’s executive, audit, compensation, contributions, disclosure, finance, employees’ benefits and information technologies committees. In addition, Matt is chairman of the board of Graybar’s Canadian subsidiary.

Matt holds an undergraduate degree in history and a Juris Doctor, both from Saint Louis University. He has attended executive education and board training at Harvard Business School, the University of Chicago and the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Matt currently serves on the board of directors of CK Power, a private company that is a leading manufacturer of power units and power generation solutions, as well as the St Louis/Chicago advisory board of FM Global, a global insurer of commercial real estate.
Matt is a past president of the Saint Louis Zoo Association board of directors, currently siting on its government relations, investment and long-range plan implementation committees, as well as being a member of the zoo’s Marlin Perkins Society. He is also past chairman of the board of directors of the Oasis Institute, a current board member as well as a member of its executive, finance and major gifts committees. In addition, Matt is chairman of the board of the St Louis Community Foundation, chair of its executive and gift acceptance committees, and a member of its finance and audit committee. He is a member of Vistage Worldwide and a former president of the Missouri Law Institute.

Throughout his career Matt has written or spoken on various topics including corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, cyber-security and enterprise risk management.
Matt’s experience, business achievements and community involvement helped him earn several recognitions, including OnCon Icon Top 50 Corporate Counsel 2021, Missouri Lawyer’s Media In-House Counsel Award 2017 and the St Louis Business Journal’s Corporate Counsel Award for Innovation 2015. In addition, with Matt’s stewardship, Graybar has been recognized for its excellence in corporate governance by Corporate Secretary for Best Overall Corporate Governance for a Private Company in 2015, 2016, and 2018 and by Private Company Director Magazine in 2019 in the category of Fiduciary Board/Closely Held or Employee-Owned companies.

Stephen Giove was a senior partner in the law firm of Shearman & Sterling LLP for over 25 years. He advised boards and senior management teams on a wide range of governance, finance, public company and strategic matters. He co-founded the firm’s corporate governance advisory group and was the driving force behind its annual corporate governance practices survey.

His governance experience included advice with respect to board practices and structures, fiduciary duties, proxy access, anti-takeover defenses, shareholder proposals, dealing with activists, crisis management, annual board self-evaluations, and dealing with external constituencies, including shareholders, ESG-focused organizations, proxy advisory firms and regulators.

Steve ran the firm’s global corporate finance practice and served as the firm’s hiring partner.  He retired from the firm in 2020. He represented nearly 100 public companies, including CVS Health, Citigroup, Viacom/CBS, Apple, Con Edison, Raytheon, Corning, Quest Diagnostics, Boston Scientific and WebMD.

After his retirement from Shearman & Sterling, Steve co-founded Ebullience Inc., a corporate governance data analytics company and Jupiter Governance Consulting, a corporate governance consulting firm.

Steve received his J.D. from the Cornell Law School and his M.B.A. from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He also received a B.S. in Accounting from S.U.N.Y. Binghamton.

Ms. Kamerick consults and lectures on corporate governance and compliance matters and is an NACD Board Leadership Fellow and has completed the NACD Director Certification exam. She previously served as CFO of such leading companies as BP Amoco Americas, Leo Burnett, Heidrick & Struggles, and Houlihan Lokey.

She began her career as a lawyer at the law firm of Skadden Arps and she holds a JD and an MBA, with honors, in Finance and International Business from the University of Chicago. She holds a BA from Boston College where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was valedictorian. She is a member of the Board of Directors for Associated Banc-Corp, ACV Auctions, Hochschild Mining, plc, and 23 closed end Legg Mason mutual funds. She served on the Board of Directors for ServiceMaster and IRI before both companies were purchased by private equity firms. She qualifies as an SEC financial expert and chairs three audit committees and one corporate governance and social responsibility committee.

She was profiled as a Director to Watch in 2016 by Directors and Boards magazine and in The Board Game: How Smart Women Become Corporate Directors. She was named among the Most Influential Corporate Directors for 2019 by Women Inc magazine. She also serves on the National Board of Directors of the Alzheimer’s Association.

She is a lecturer at University of Chicago Law School, Georgetown Law Center, and University of Iowa College of Law and for the NACD Battlefield to Boardroom board readiness program.

Ben Maiden is the editor-at-large of Corporate Secretary, having joined the company in December 2016. He is based in New York. He had previously been managing editor of Compliance Reporter since January 2007, covering regulatory and compliance issues affecting broker-dealers and asset management firms. Before that, Ben was editor of International Financial Law Review and IFLR’s Americas editor, working in London and New York.