Francis Byrd Bio

Francis H. Byrd

Senior Vice President
Corporate Governance
Risk Practice Leader

Francis H. Byrd, leader of Laurel Hill Advisory Group’s Corporate Governance/ Risk Advisory Practice, provides strategic advice on corporate governance risk and shareholder engagement to boards of directors and senior executive management of corporate issuers.

Prior to joining Laurel Hill, Francis has served in a number of roles focusing on governance risks facing public companies. Francis was Vice President/Corporate Governance Specialist and member of the fundamental credit rating team at the global rating agency Moody’s Investors’ Service. During his tenure at Moody’s, Francis authored over 90 published corporate governance assessments and sector commentaries; and evaluated the governance attributes and practices of Fortune 1000 companies, with a focus on the relationship between governance, risk and credit.

Prior to Moody’s, Francis was a member of the Pension Policy Unit of the NYC Comptroller’s Office, where he developed the governance target list and managed shareowner engagement programs for the $83 billion New York City retirement systems and pension funds, global leaders in the field of institutional investor activism. Preceding his tenure with the NYC Pension Funds, Francis was a Senior Analyst with Georgeson Shareholder Communications.

Francis is a frequent speaker on corporate governance issues, having appeared on Money for Breakfast, Fox Business, and has been quoted by Reuters, Agenda magazine and ISS Governance Weekly. Francis is also a contributor to the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, the NACD/Directorship magazine blog and Directors & Boards magazine. Francis has also writes extensively on corporate governance issues serving as editor and chief commentator for Laurel Hill’s BYRDWatch e-newsletter. Francis has also been selected by NACD Directorship as one of thirty “People to Watch” in corporate governance in 2011 – “a list of movers and shakers who merit serious attention as potential boardroom influentials.”

Mr. Byrd also has a broad reach of experience including speaking in Mumbai, India on behalf of the World Bank's Global Corporate Governance Forum (GCGF) and in Nigeria where he conducted a series of workshops for bank examiners of the Central Bank of Nigeria and their general counsel counterpoints in the private sector.

Francis holds a B.A. in Media Communications from Hunter College of the City University of New York, and is a graduate of the Coro Foundation’s Leadership New York (IX) fellows program.