Governance
We recognize the importance of sound governance and firmly believe it is the foundation for strong corporate performance.
To ensure board independence, Cameco maintains separate chair and CEO positions, so that our board can be more effective in overseeing our affairs and holding management accountable for the company's activities. The board appoints both the chair and the CEO.
We are committed to open, timely, balanced and accurate communication, as committed in our disclosure policy and reinforced by our disclosure committee. In 2010, we adopted a shareholder engagement statement that gives shareholders, employees and others the right to contact the chair of our board, the chairs of its independent committees or the directors as a group directly.
Cameco's code of conduct and ethics governs employee, executive and director behaviour throughout the company.
Measuring our performance
We measure our governance practices and performance using two third party rankings:
The Globe and Mail's Board games – An annual assessment of corporate governance at more than 200 companies in the S&P/TSX index, designed to identify practices that go beyond mandatory requirements in the areas of:
- board composition
- shareholding and compensation
- shareholder rights
- disclosure.
Cameco ranked 12th out of 253 companies in 2011.
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) Governance risk indicators – ISS is an external organization that measures governance risk in four areas:
- audit practices
- board structure
- shareholder rights
- compensation.
Although the criteria used varies from year to year, our levels of board risk continue to score well, with our board structure score improving in 2011 over the previous year.
GRI Indicators
CA3 – Annual business scores and ranking
^Outstanding Financial Performance and Governance
This indicator provides information about Cameco's scores and ranking in the Globe and Mail's Board Games, an annual assessment of corporate governance at more than 200 companies in the S&P/TSX index.
The scoring system includes criteria designed to assess practices that go beyond mandatory governance requirements in the areas of board composition, shareholding and compensation, shareholder rights and disclosure.
This is an externally developed assessment process and the methodology used changes from year to year.
2009 | 2010 | 2011 | |
---|---|---|---|
Score | 85 | 88 | 91 |
Ranking | 15 | 9 | 12 |
/ Out of | 157 | 187 | 253 |
What it means
Cameco continues to score well and receive recognition for our governance practices. We've increased our overall scores each year for the past three years and we've remained in the top quartile since 2007.
CA4 – Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) governance risk indicators
^Outstanding Financial Performance and Governance
ISS is an external organization that measures governance risk in four areas: audit practices, board structure, shareholder rights and compensation.
ISS used a new proprietary model to determine risk in each category in 2010. What they choose to track from year to year changes, to reflect current best practices.
Companies can provide new information at any time, allowing "real-time" risk scoring. ISS reviews company data yearly to ensure authenticity.
2010 - Dec 31Audit | Board Structure | Shareholder Rights | Compensation | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Score / 100 | 100 | 92 | 73 | 83 |
Risk Level | Low | Low | Medium | Low |
2011 - Dec 31
Audit | Board Structure | Shareholder Rights | Compensation | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Score / 100 | 100 | 84 | 79 | 83 |
Risk Level | Low | Medium | Low | Low |
What it means
Overall, our board risk levels have remained low during the reporting period.
Our shareholder rights score improved from 2010 to 2011 because we amended our bylaws to update the quorum requirements for our shareholder meetings (we now require at least two persons representing at least 25% of the shares to have quorum).
During the same period, our board structure risk level increased (and the score decreased) because one director attended less than 75% of our board meetings.