How to Keep Your Company from Falling Apart: It's Your Board of Directors. Really.

Mark Ohringer, Global General Counsel, Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated, USA

1929 Crash. SEC. Bank Failures. FDIC. Savings and Loan Crisis. FIRREA. Enron/Andersen/WorldCom. SOX. Compensation Abuse. CD&A. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. FHFA. Lehman/AIG/Global Financial Crisis. TARP, TALF and Dodd-Frank. See a pattern? The history of corporate America is lately more one of failure than success. Some failures resulted from fraud, some from risk not adequately managed. After big failures, there has always been reactive legislation. Yet we all know there will be more excesses, more failures, and thousands more pages of legislation that will still not stop the wrenching downfalls from recurring.

Jones Lang LaSalle is a financial and professional services firm specialising in real estate services and investment management. More than 37,000 people in 750 locations in 60 countries serve the local, regional and global real estate needs of those clients, growing the company in the process. In response to changing client expectations and market conditions, Jones Lang LaSalle assembles teams of experts who deliver integrated services built on market insight and foresight, sound research and relevant market knowledge.