We are a global public company with 71 subsidiaries worldwide (with potentially another 17 being added through an acquisition). For governance purposes (and signing purposes), unless otherwise dictated by local laws or the bylaws for each subsidiary, our subsidiary boards consist (at a minimum) of one corporate candidate (our GC), one corporate finance candidate, one local finance candidate and one local regional head. (By local, I mean within the a region of countries.) This can be challenging when documents need original signatures from all directors (cannot be signed in counterpart) and the document is couriered from one to up to four or five different countries. Not only is it time consuming but at times the package has gotten lost in the process. Even when the document can be signed in counterpart, we are chasing 4 to 5 individuals globally to make sure they sign and courier the document to our agent.

We would like to know what the practice is of other global companies for governance/signing purposes.