Kleffner et al. (2003) found that many Canadian companies adopting ERM cited encouragement from the board of directors as a main factor underlying their adoption of ERM. The extant corporate governance academic literature and recent calls for board of director reform emphasize the importance of the board’s independence from management as a key factor affecting the board’s oversight effectiveness. In general, these sources argue that a more independent board is more objective in the assessment of management actions than is one with a lower percentage of independent directors. We explore the following research question: