Concern for environmental and social issues has reached an inflection point. While traditional governance issues that have been a staple of investor advocacy and discussion (the “G” of ESG) continue to be important, environmental and social issues (the “E” and the “S” of “ESG”) have now taken center stage. Scarcely a day passes without a new ESG development, disseminated as a statistic, an investor campaign, political initiative or action by a special interest group. In response to this change, the 2019 Corporate Governance & Executive Compensation Survey, our 17th annual, closely reviews several aspects of the current ESG phenomena in addition to continuing to report on traditional governance topics. In this effort, we cover such topics as proxy access, shareholder engagement, shareholder proposals, governance practices of newly public companies, CEO pay ratio, director compensation, cybersecurity, board diversity and shareholder activism.