Corporate governance across the Atlantic.

Those of you who enjoyed the corporate governance parts of ACCA and CIMA may be interested – or excited, or irritated, depending on your point of view! – to know that the US Congress is considering legislation requiring the roles of the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer to be split between two people.

This is big stuff. Why, you must be thinking, that is precisely the recommendation (read: requirement, hint, hint) of the Combined Code in the UK, and this feature distinguished it from the American Sarbanes Oxley law, which never mentioned such a split.

The reason is cultural: the Americans have always believed that one guy has to be in charge of a company, whether his name is Jack Welsh (General Electric) or, in an earlier age, Harold Geneen (of ATT).

In his book, “The Age of Turbulence” Alan Greenspan endorses this “John Wayne” approach to management. One guy in charge is the way to go. And now, after all the controversy on corporate mismanagement, bailouts and excessive executive remuneration, Congress is looking at … requiring the separation of the Chairman and CEO roles at US companies.

Watch this space…