Agenda – Will Special Committees Prevail in the Pandemic?

By Stephanie Forshee

Dividing duties across the full board has been the approach seen most frequently by Robin Ferracone, CEO of compensation consultancy Farient Advisors and a director on the board of pet insurance company Trupanion. She isn’t familiar with any boards that are relying on a small group of directors to take charge.

Indeed, many of the directors Agenda contacted for this article — who serve on boards of pharmaceutical, retail, financial services and insurance companies, among others — indicated that the full boards are tackling the issue, rather than a small subset of directors.

Ferracone says that there is potentially a divide in the types of companies that might have considered forming a committee. Trupanion, according to Ferracone, is among the “essential” companies that has not experienced significant declines as a result of the pandemic, since most of its customers have not opted to do away with their pet insurance. By contrast, boards serving industries like retail or travel would require all hands on deck, Ferracone says.

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