From the editor.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Editorial

It's no secret that beefing up corporate governance remains one of the biggest challenges in business, and one that is still a top-of-mind priority for regulators and investors. Votes like those at The Walt Disney Co. and Safeway Inc. this spring, in which shareholder challenges compelled boards to make changes, only underscore the impact that governance is having in the greater marketplace.

Our cover story looks at governance from several different angles. An article by two partners at KPMG examines the risks facing the audit committee, and outlines a four-part framework for minimizing those risks. Peter Clapman, a top governance officer with pension fund giant TIAA-CREF, talks about investor activism and how his organization has been agitating for change. And Tyco International executive Eric Pillmore details the myriad of changes made there in the wake of a terrible and far-reaching scandal.

Elsewhere, two stories look at the issue of education, both of directors and accountants. Writer Paul Sweeney examines programs that have been developed to help educate directors, both in-house and at major learning centers like the top business schools. And writer Susan Karr finds that as the complexity of laws and regulations have grown, accountants themselves--even accounting professors--are "going back to school" to bone up on new rules and new approaches.

"Speeding up the close" has been a finance mantra for years, but it's getting new urgency, thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley. Two executives at The Johnsson Group argue that finance departments should view the challenge as an opportunity, saying "now is the time to reposition the close process as an intangible asset for the organization."

Who isn't alarmed by the continuing spikes in healthcare costs? Smaller, private companies have been hit particularly hard by the ever-rising expense...