Best governance team (small to mid-cap) Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings has a strong history around its governance and compliance work in a highly regulated industry. Not only has the firm laid down a solid foundation in these areas, but it also seeks to continuously improve. ‘Transparency, accountability and trust are the pillars of our corporate governance at Atlas,’ says Shannon Collins, assistant corporate secretary.
The company has in recent years undergone board refreshment that entailed bringing in three new directors, improving the mix of skills/experience base and enhancing diversity. All three joined the company at the same time but the governance team ensured each new director received individual onboarding.
Atlas Air’s third ESG report, published in May 2022, was its most comprehensive, strategic and data and goals-driven to date. The company uses TCFD and SASB-based disclosures and last year for the first time introduced its new carbon emissions reduction target. In addition to the annual ESG report, Atlas Air releases an ESG fact sheet outlining the essential information, updates the corporate responsibility section of its website during the year and conducts detailed ESG-related discussions during shareholder engagement.
The company has created an ESG steering council of different business leaders and formalized its ESG strategy around responsible business growth, environmental stewardship, career, culture and equity for its people, social impact and community engagement.
The Covid-19 pandemic increased regulatory and operational complexity in the aviation industry. The company’s legal team has worked with groups such as safety, regulatory and compliance to ensure operations have kept running and employees have remained safe. Atlas’ extensive compliance efforts include general counsel Adam Kokas meeting at least quarterly with other senior managers and outside auditors to discuss issues raised on the company’s hotline. Kokas reports to the audit committee on those issues each quarter.
In addition to training, the legal team prepares summaries of relevant cases of other legal developments to share with senior leaders around the company. During the awards period, the team also led an anti-corruption and FCPA global risk assessment and gave a comprehensive presentation to the board on its findings.
