Directors Say Their Risk Has Increased Since Last Year, According to PricewaterhouseCoopers & Corporate Board Member Survey

Directors Say Their Risk Has Increased Since Last Year, According to
PricewaterhouseCoopers & Corporate Board Member Survey
69% Say Risk as Director has Increased - Nearly a Twofold Jump from 38% in
2008

NEW YORK, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the 8th Annual "What Directors
Think" survey released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Corporate Board
Member magazine, directors are very focused on risk: 69 percent believe their
risk as a director has increased during the prior 12 months -- a substantial
jump from the 38 percent who answered so in 2008. Seventy-five percent of
directors surveyed also state that responsibility for risk management rests
with the full board.

Overall, respondents are cautiously optimistic about their ability to monitor
their companies' multitude of risks: 88 percent of directors consider their
board to be capable, and they rate risk first among responsibilities to which
directors should pay the greatest attention, after their focus on
profitability and shareholder value. However, while most directors indicate
they have sufficient board meeting time to comply with their duties as
directors, 66 percent would prefer to increase the amount of time spent
discussing risk management.

In addition to risk management, the current business environment is among
boards' highest of priorities. When asked how their board meeting time should
be spent, more than half (60 percent) of the respondents say they should spend
more board meeting time discussing the effects of changes in the economy.

Yet, while directors want to spend more time on the uncertainties of the
economy during their meetings, when asked, What keeps you up at night?, fewer
than 25 percent say they worry about the ability of the CEO to manage through
the current challenges. Instead, 59 percent cite unknown risks in response to
the question of what keeps them up at night.

Catherine Bromilow, a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers' Corporate Governance
Group, said, "Directors' focus on risk management is particularly timely,
given our expectation that companies will have to provide new disclosures
about their boards' risk oversight in upcoming proxy statements."

Corporate Board Member president and CEO, TK Kerstetter, said, "Every year
when the survey results are announced, we stress the importance of the key
foundational duties of a board. One is selecting and retaining the right
CEO/management team and second is the responsibility of overseeing risk
management, particularly catastrophic risk.

Kerstetter added, "Even a board with a great corporate governance structure
will be challenged this year by monitoring the risk levels of its
organization, especially if they have global operations."

This marks the eighth year for the annual "What Directors Think" survey, which
measures the opinions of more than 1,000 directors serving on the boards of
the top 2,000 publicly traded companies (by revenue) listed with the NYSE
Euronext, the NYSE Amex, and the NASDAQ OMX Group stock exchanges. The 2009
survey findings are highlighted in Fourth Quarter 2009 Corporate Board Member
issue and can be found on the Corporate Board Member website at
www.boardmember.com. Additional findings and analysis will be published in a
supplement mailing in the coming months.

About PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwc.com) provides industry-focused assurance, tax
and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients
and their stakeholders. More than 163,000 people in 151 countries across our
network share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop fresh
perspectives and practical advice.

"PricewaterhouseCoopers" refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP or, as the
context requires, the PricewaterhouseCoopers global network or other member
firms of the network, each of which is a separate and independent legal
entity.

About Corporate Board Member
Corporate Board Member is the leading information resource for senior officers
and directors of publicly traded corporations and large private companies. The
quarterly publication provides readers with decision-making tools to deal with
the corporate governance challenges confronting their boards. Corporate Board
Member further extends its governance leadership through an online resource
center, conferences, director training programs, roundtables, and timely
research. The magazine maintains the most comprehensive, up-to-date database
of directors and officers serving on boards of publicly traded companies
listed with the NYSE Euronext, The NASDAQ OMX Group and NYSE Amex stock
exchanges. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee with an editorial office in
New York, Corporate Board Member is published by Board Member Inc. and is the
sister publication of Bank Director magazine, the leading information resource
for officers and directors of financial institutions. For more information,
visit www.boardmember.com.

SOURCE PricewaterhouseCoopers

Steven Silber, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, +1-646-471-4059,
steven.g.silber@us.pwc.com; or Kimberly James, Corporate Board Member,
+1-615-309-3203, kjames@boardmember.com; or Marisha Mistry, Edelman,
+1-212-704-4592, marisha.mistry@edelman.com