The NACD Directorship surveyed 15,000 public company directors and executives to form the final 100 honorees.

“The esteemed boardroom leaders on the Directorship 100 share a common characteristic as proactive agents of change in the boardroom community, shaping the future of corporate governance at a time when American business looks to restore investor confidence and restore economic growth,” said NACD CEO and President Ken Daly.

Among the top 100 honored are a select group of D&O insurers and governance advisors, including:

• Robert C. Cox, Chubb Group
• Mark Lamendola, Travelers
• Timothy J. O’Donnell, ACE USA
• Daniel W. Riordan, Zurich Financial Services
• Michael W. Smith, Chartis
• Richard A. Bennett, The Corporate Library
• Gavin Anderson, GovernanceMetrics International
• Steve Harvey, Martha Carter, Carol Bowie, Patrick S. McGurn, ISS Governance Services
• Robert McCormick, Glass Lewis & Co.

The association noted that it has seen a shift in the type of leader exerting the most influence on corporate governance. For the first time, professionals in the “regulators and rule makers” category received the most nominations.

• Geoengineering in regards to the environment and climate change has increasingly been gaining mainstream interest over the past year after spending most of its days mired in obscurity or outright condemnation. I’ve personally written about it twice in the past few months both in regards to Bill Gates’ discussion on thwarting hurricanes and SuperFreakonomics‘ assertion that widespread geoengineering to slow climate change is a good solution. Still, the concept remains widely misunderstood and obviously has both positive and worrisome components. To help everyone become better informed about the concept, the MIT Technology Review has taken an exhaustive look at the possibilities of society geoengineering our way out of climate change.

• Yesterday’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake that triggered a tsunami and landslides has left some 1,000 people homeless in the Solomon Islands.

• A Learjet crash outside of Chicago has left two victims — although officials are holding out some hope that they may still be alive. “Asked if both were dead, an official on the scene said ‘This is a recovery operation.’”

• AIG has hired several new senior execs. The beleaguered insurer is also reportedly stalling its planned sale of its Chartis P/C arm.

• Rick Nason teaches an ERM class and while skeptical of the practicality of teaching this within an MBA curriculum, he has a question for you: “ERM has created a lot of excitement, but very few successful examples. Explain why you believe ERM has so few successful implementations.” Head over there to answer. And show your work. (via RiskCzar)

• “The Nigerian man accused of attempting to blow up a US plane has provided ‘usable intelligence’ to FBI investigators, the White House says.”

• And in related news, new security rules for the airline industry are forthcoming from the Obama administration.

• The reinsurance world is in good shape. Aon is highlighting the “Remarkable Recovery” of the reinsurance industry in a new report and Willis sees all “talk of a hard market evaporat[ing]” in it’s January reinsurance renewals report. National Underwriter breaks down both reports.

• Les Krantz breaks down the 200 best and worst jobs in the U.S. in his “Jobs Rated Almanac.” And you know what’s number one? Actuary. “Actuaries, who evaluate the financial impact of risk on an organization, fared best because they work during standard business hours and in favorable conditions — indoors and in places free of toxic fumes or loud noise — as opposed to those jobs toward the bottom of the list such as iron worker, dairy farmer and the biggest loser from last year’s study, lumberjack.” Google “Norm MacDonald,” “Weekend Update” and “worst job” to find out what ranked dead last this year — again.

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• Forbes published a good piece on how Credit Suisse has aided clients from rogue nations like Iran, Cuba, Burma and Libya sidestep U.S. sanctions for nearly a quarter century, an infraction that will cost the Zurich bank $536 million for violating the the International Emergency Economic Powers Act as well as New York State law. “Credit Suisse first started dealing with rogue regimes that were sanctioned by the U.S. government in 1986, when the Zurich-based bank began to assist Libyan customers in evading sanctions by executing payment orders without stating their names, according to U.S. authorities. Later Credit Suisse started to refine its methods, processing payments for clients in sanctioned countries with payment messages that concealed the identity of customers by using false codes. Credit Suisse did this kind of business for other clients in countries that faced U.S. sanctions, including Sudan, Libya, Burma, Cuba, and Charles Taylor’s Liberia, the Treasury Department says.”

• The SEC approves enhanced disclosure about risk, compensation and corporate governance. “The Securities and Exchange Commission today approved rules to enhance the information provided to shareholders so they are better able to evaluate the leadership of public companies. Beginning in the upcoming annual reporting and proxy season, the new rules will improve corporate disclosure regarding risk, compensation and corporate governance matters when voting decisions are made.”

• RSA Insurance Group and the WWF (the environmental group, not the wrestling association that was renamed the WWE) began a three-year partnership that will center on conducting joint research efforts into all things Mother Nature and risky.

• Coincidentally, however, WWE wrestler John Cena talks about the importance of composite risk management. Odd. But kinda cool.

• The percentage of commercial insurance buyers who have an exposure insured with Chartis has dropped from 90% in July to 80% now. Still a high number, but a significant drop. Although Barclays is saying that most of those who are still on board with the AIG insurance arm now plan to stay. “Of commercial buyers that insure with Chartis, Barclays said roughly 75% of those customers plan to stay with the unit despite AIG’s troubles, up sharply from 40% of customers who said they would stay with Chartis in July.”

• Bank of America finds its new CEO, Brian Moynihan, from within its own ranks.

• A guy named TJ Sullivan who is CEO of CampusSpeak, Inc. has dubbed the crackdown on Greek life shenanigans on campus as “the risk management era.” He explains in more detail: “The emphasis was on rules and policy adherence. It dominated everything: chapter services strategies, fraternity education, volunteer training and duties, consultant training, board meetings, etc. Someone a lot smarter than I will write a book about this, and I’m sure opinions will vary on whether or not it was a good, important era, or a harmful one. Was there any net benefit? Some will say that fraternities and sororities grew stronger during this time. The values congruence crowd will continue to crow about how risk management draws us closer to the values we were founded upon (a weak argument, I’d say). Others will say fraternities and sororities lost their fun, their innocence, and their relevance. One thing for sure, lawyers and insurance agents made a lot of money. Yet, students are still dying from alcohol poisoning and hazing on a regular basis.”

• The Maryland insurance commissioner is moving on to the FDA.

• A new Swiss Re Sigma study analyzes commercial liability insurance. “Emerging risks due to technological and social developments are a constant challenge: new insights into and changing standards around food safety, environmental pollution, employment practices and the compensation of financial loss are, for example, risks that insurers closely monitor. Roman Lechner, co-author of the sigma study, said: “Fortunately, none of these emerging risks has evolved into the next asbestos — yet.”

UPDATE:

• MF Global was fined $10 million by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for three risk management failures related to supervision. “The $10 million penalty imposed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is the latest fallout from rogue wheat-futures trades in 2008 that forced the company to take a $141.5 million charge, triggering a restructuring that led to the departure of its chief executive, Kevin Davis.”

• In his latest View from the Press Box, Sam Friedman gives us some 20/20 hindsight on his previous predictions for 2009. “Way back on Jan. 5, I peered into my crystal ball for the likely Top-10 Property and Casualty Insurance Stories of 2009. Before I reveal what turned out to be my actual picks here on Dec. 21, let’s see how accurate my predictions were.”

• Markus Haering is the latest corporate leader on trial. What for? White collar crime? Nope. He faces up to five years in jail for causing earthquakes by drilling for geothermal energy sources.

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