1.2 Governance and Societal Responsibilities
1.2a
1.2a(1)
Collin has strengthened its governance system since its last Baldrige application. By staying cognizant of changes to the Baldrige Criteria, Collin identified the value that an external advisory board would provide to the company. In 2004, the LT and the company founder Ed Collin established rudimentary criteria for the creation of an advisory board. The board needed balanced expertise in the areas of fiduciary responsibility in an ESOP, interconnect technology and related research, and marketing. The initial AB was selected to represent these areas, and quarterly reports were provided by the LT in the early years.
In 2006, a formal process to disclose potential conflicts of interest and improve the transparency of AB member selection was created. Each candidate for the AB must complete a rigorous questionnaire for disclosure before being recommended by the ad-hoc nominating committee. In 2007, a formal committee structure was added. The executive committee oversees CEO compensation and board evaluation and development. The finance committee oversees fiscal accountability, including selection of an external auditor and independence of internal audits (financial and ISO). It monitors observations when there are no findings in these audits to ensure sufficient rigor in both internal and external audits. In 2009, the AB was broadened to include expertise in corporate sustainability and a representative from academia. The sustainability committee was created