News Releases 09-70

The Greatest Victim of Current Crisis is Trust

Toronto, January 13 — Trust is the greatest casualty of the recent debacle in financial systems according to The Conference Board of Canada. The Board will host a Leaders’ Forum on Stakeholder Trust to argue for the need to seriously discuss the issue of rebuilding trust in Canadian Institutions on January 15 in Toronto.

“This erosion of trust is causing a crisis of confidence in the institutions of our society. The foundation of our modern system of commerce is trust. Without trust, there are no markets and no customers,” said Prem Benimadhu, Vice-President, Governance and Human Resource Management Research. Management's responsibility is to increase stakeholder trust through its strategies, plans and actions. The board's objective is to ensure that management does so.”

WHO:

• Anne Golden, President and CEO, The Conference Board of Canada 
• Alan MacGibbon, Managing Partner and CEO, Deloitte 
• Terry Savage, noted Chicago-based financial commentator, President, Terry Savage Productions Ltd. 
• Courtney Pratt, former President and CEO, Stelco Inc. 
• Gord Cummings, former President and CEO, Canadian Executive Services Organization

WHAT: Release of the Conference Board Report, The Trust Imperative: Taking Governance to the Next Level, which provides leaders with the opportunity to ask probing questions of management during their deliberations. The questions address trust with five groups - the public, investors, employees, customers and suppliers. This report is part of the Board’s ongoing research on the issue of rebuilding trust in Canadian Institutions.

WHERE: Thursday, January 15, 2009, The Fairmont Royal York, 100 Front Street W.

WHEN: 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.

The project, which is sponsored by Deloitte, includes a booklet, The Trust Imperative: Taking Governance to the Next Level, a Conference Board report and a compendium of thought-pieces on trust and stakeholders. The publications are available at www.e-library.ca.