Book Club.

• Author: Rock, Robert H.
• Position: LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN - Letter to the editor

In this edition of Directors & Boards we present the Governance Year in Review, which highlights issues and trends in corporate governance. Since 1976 the mission of D&B has stayed the same: to be the "thought leader" in the evolving field of corporate governance, and thus we have been offering insights and advice that enable our readers to better govern their enterprises. Our intent is to inform and motivate directors to perform with distinction their governance role.

The stimulus for my own thought leadership often derives from the books I read, and these are most often selections from my History Book Club. The club is comprised of nine top executives from many different disciplines, including medicine, law, finance, technology, home building, and media. We meet eight times a year, with the meetings taking place at a fine restaurant or a member's home.

Each year the club takes to the road, travelling to sites relevant to our book selection.

For example, last January we went to London to have an "immersion" in the life and times of Sir Winston Churchill, which included a tour of Parliament with his grandson Sir Nicholas Soames; a meeting with Boris Johnson, mayor of London, who had recently published The Churchill Factor, a visit to the Churchill archives with the head archivist; and a trip to Cambridge University where we met with the chancellor, the dean of the Law School, and the head of the History Department, all of whom are Churchill devotees. (A few years before, we had visited the Churchill War Rooms, his Chartwell home where we had dinner, and the Imperial War Museum.)

Over the past year the club has read My Promised Land by Ari Shavit, The Prize by Daniel Yergen, and Dealing with China by Henry Paulson. Sometimes we have special access to the author. For example, one of our members, Michael Smerconish...