About

Overview

Directors’ College is the nation’s premier executive education program for directors and senior executives of publicly traded firms. The program addresses a broad range of problems that confront modern boards, including the board’s role in setting business strategy, CEO succession, techniques for controlling legal liability, challenges posed by activist investors, boardroom dynamics, and contemporary issues including the state of the macroeconomy, emerging cybersecurity threats, and disruption.

Now in its twenty-second year, Directors’ College brings together leading CEOs, directors, regulators, jurists, and scholars for a rigorous and balanced examination of corporate governance, strategy, and compliance.

Learn more about the Program

To see more about the Stanford Directors’ College program, click on the videos below.

Check out the Directors’ College 2015 Storify to take a look at some highlights of last year’s conference.

 

Program Directors

LED BY Professor Joseph A. Grundfest ’78, Professor F. Daniel Siciliano, Amanda K. Packel, Deputy Director of the Rock Center for Corporate Governance, and Simon M. Lorne, Vice Chairman and Chief Legal Officer of Millennium Management, Directors’ College helps develop pragmatic best-practice advice on a range of critical boardroom issues, from Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and compensation to audit committee practices and strategic planning.

Joseph A. Grundfest

W.A. Franke Professor of Law and Business, Stanford Law School; Senior Faculty, The Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance; Co-Founder and Director, Financial Engines; Co-Director,Stanford Directors’ College

Joseph A. Grundfest ’78 is a nationally prominent expert on capital markets, corporate governance, and securities litigation. His scholarship has been published in the Harvard, Yale, and Stanford law reviews, and he has been recognized as one of the most influential attorneys in the United States. Professor Grundfest founded the award-winning Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, which provides detailed, online information about the prosecution, defense, and settlement of federal class action securities fraud litigation. He also launched Stanford Law School’s executive education programs and continues to co-direct Directors’ College, the nation’s leading venue for the continuing professional education of directors of publicly traded corporations. In addition, he is a senior affiliated faculty member with the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1990, Professor Grundfest was a commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, served on the staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors as counsel and senior economist for legal and regulatory matters, and was an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. Early in his career he was a research associate at the Brookings Institution and an economist and consultant with the RAND Corporation.

Simon M. Lorne

Vice Chairman and Chief Legal Officer, Millennium Management LLC; Director, Teledyne Technologies, Inc.; Co-Director, Stanford Directors’ College

Mr. Lorne is Millennium’s Vice Chairman and Chief Legal Officer. Mr. Lorne oversees compliance, legal, and regulatory functions, along with management controls and internal audit. Mr. Lorne had been a partner in the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, which he rejoined in 1999 after originally becoming a partner in 1972. In 1996, he became a Managing Director at Salomon Brothers where he served as Global Head of Internal Audit. following the merger of Salomon Brothers into Travelers Group Inc., he continues as Managing Directors and as a senior member of the General Counsel’s office. With the merger of Travelers Group and Citigroup, he organized and coordinate the global compliance functions of Citigroup. From 1993 to 1996, Mr. Lorne was General Counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Lorne graduated cum Laude with an AB from Occidental college and received his JD, magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School.

Amanda K. Packel

Deputy Director, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance; Co-Director, Stanford Directors’ College

Amanda K. Packel coordinates and executes Rock Center programs and projects and serves as co-director of Stanford Directors’ College, the leading executive education program for board members and senior executives of publicly traded firms. She also oversees the center’s communications strategy, web assets, and finances; maintains strategic relationships with corporate affiliates and other key partners; and conducts research on corporate governance issues, with publications on diversity on corporate boards, leadership, and ethics in nonprofits. Packel is an advisory board member of the Silicon Valley Directors’ Exchange (SVDX) and a member of the leadership committee of the Stanford Women on Boards Initiative.

Prior to joining the Rock Center, Packel served as executive director of the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession, where she conducted research on leadership and the changing dynamics of the legal profession and co-authored a text specifically designed for teaching leadership in law schools (Deborah L. Rhode & Amanda K. Packel, Leadership: Law, Policy, and Management (Aspen, 2011)).

Packel previously practiced white collar criminal defense and conducted corporate investigations as an associate at Covington & Burling and a senior associate at Orrick. Her experience includes defending individuals and companies against SEC enforcement actions and federal criminal investigations in the areas of antitrust, securities fraud, stock options backdating, public corruption, and off-label promotion. She has also represented audit committees and conducted internal investigations into allegations including securities fraud, the Bank Bribery Act, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Prior to law school, Packel did empirical research and analysis in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. She received her A.B. in Economics,magna cum laude, from Princeton University and a J.D., order of the coif, from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where she was an Articles Editor of the California Law Review. After graduating from law school, she served as a law clerk to Judge Marsha S. Berzon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Packel is a member of the State Bar of California.

F. Daniel Siciliano

Professor and Associate Dean for Executive Education and Special Programs, Stanford Law School; Faculty Director, The Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance; Co-Director,Stanford Directors’ College

F. Daniel Siciliano is a legal scholar and entrepreneur with expertise in corporate governance, corporate finance, and immigration law. He is the faculty director of the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, associate dean for executive education and special programs and co-director of Stanford’s Directors’ College. He is the senior research fellow with the Immigration Policy Center and a frequent commentator on the long-term economic impact of immigration policy and reform. His work has included expert testimony in front of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Prior to joining Stanford Law School, Siciliano co-founded and led LawLogix Group—named three times to the Inc. 500/5000 list. Siciliano serves as a governance consultant and trainer to board directors of several Fortune 500 companies and is a member of the Academic Council of Corporate Board Member magazine.

About the Rock Center

Corporate Governance has become one of the signature issues of our times – in the financial markets, in the boardroom, and in the courtroom. Yet there is little agreement about what constitutes good corporate governance or how to measure it. The Rock Center for Corporate Governance was founded at Stanford University in 2006 with a generous donation from Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock, with the belief that by examining these issues in new and more rigorous ways, we could shape the future of corporate governance.

For more information about the Rock Center, please visit the Rock Center website.

Executive Team

Evan Epstein

Executive Director, The Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance

Evan is the Executive Director of the Rock Center for Corporate Governance, a joint initiative between Stanford Law School and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He is also the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Stanford Directors’ College for Venture-Backed Company Directors (VCDC) and the Co-Chair of the Rock Center International Advisory Council. In addition to being the senior academic staff member at the Rock Center, he lectures on corporate governance and venture capital issues. In the past few years he has also led the international expansion of Rock Center programs and partnerships in the Americas, Asia and Europe.

Prior to his position at Stanford, Evan was the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel at a high-tech business incubator and consulting firm, facilitating the transfer, development and commercialization of technologies and fostering the growth of early-stage high-tech companies.

Prior, he was an associate at a leading Chilean corporate law firm and a trainee with Allen & Overy’s Latin America Projects Group in Paris, France.

Evan is also an Advisory Board Member for the Silicon Valley Directors’ Exchange (SVDX).

Evan holds a law degree (JD) (cum laude, 2002) from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and an LL.M. (Master of Laws) degree in Corporate Governance and Practice from Stanford Law School (2005). In addition, he was part of the exchange program “Cycle du Diplome” at Sciences-Po, Paris, France (2001).

Evan is a member of the State Bar of California and the Chilean Bar.

Nancy Easterbrook Millward

Associate Director of Development, Corporate and Foundation Relations, Stanford Law School

As the Associate Director of Development, Nancy manages all corporate and foundation partnerships at Stanford Law School. She acts as a liaison to faculty and their program areas as she identifies and cultivates relationships with outside entities. Nancy runs all of the affiliate programs at Stanford Law School, to include the Rock Center for Corporate Governance, the Program in Law, Science & Technology, and the Center on the Legal Profession.

Prior to joining Stanford Law School in 2008, Nancy was a program manager at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, developing programs and strategic initiatives. She also worked at Everypath, Inc. as a project manager to facilitate company acquisitions.

Nancy received her B.A. in International Relations from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an M.B.A in International Business from the University of San Francisco.

Our Affiliates

The Rock Center Affiliates contribute through sponsorship and program input on an annual basis and support sustained scholarship, policy, relevant research and teaching, and program development that bridges the gap between academia and the real world. In return, affiliates and their clients have access to the Law School’s established series of high value, cutting-edge executive programs, exclusive roundtables, working groups, and special events.

As a direct result of the affiliate support, Stanford Law School is today a nationally recognized leader in the field of law and business, and has the preeminent law school programs for senior executive, director, and institutional investor education.

You can find more information about current Rock Center Affiliates and the Affiliate Program here on the Rock Center website.

Rock Center Venture Partners

Rock Center Program Partners