Natalie Zmuda wrote a story today in Advertising Age that examined the Chief Marketing Officer title and its relative importance in Fortune 1000 companies.  Zmuda refers to a recent study conducted by Ernst & Young as evidence for the title of her story.

A study conducted by Ernst & Young and presented as part of a panel with chief financial officers at the ANA Marketing Accountability and Effectiveness Conference found that 13% to 15% of Fortune 1,000 companies employ some sort of marketing position with a chief or senior-executive-level title, such as chief marketing officer or chief revenue officer. And only 70, or 7%, of those firms list the head marketer — carrying any title, not just CMO — in financial filings. Being listed in those public filings means an individual is among the highest compensated executives at the company and sits on the operating board, which is charged with fiduciary and operating responsibility for the company.

Anyone interested in CMOs and their relative importance within large public companies should read the piece.

Raji Menon wrote a story for Reuters today that examined a call by the UK’s institutional investment firm, Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM), for the annual election of corporate board members.  LGIM’s call is intended to help push for greater board accountability.  Hopefully the same calls will be raise here in the United States and Canada by institutional and activist investors.  Anyone interested in greater corporate accountability should read Menon’s story.

A timely roundtable panel on Midwestern Banks this week.   As Tom Mitchell of Miller Tabak points out – they are playing the hand they’ve been dealt and doing the best they can to build reserves.

TWST: As you listened to the banks in their first quarter reports, what was your general reaction?

Mr. Mitchell: Everybody was pleased with themselves. They thought they themselves had done very well. They had run into some adverse conditions that  they were handling very appropriately, but in general, most banks end up having to — in a sense that geography is your franchise, and who your customers are is really the hand that you’ve been dealt — pretty much play that hand. It’s not like you can magically transform your franchise from primarily business to primarily a consumer franchise or you can turn around and say that you’ll never do any construction lending again because you have so many great customers who don’t really need you to loan them the money. In reality, almost everybody is stuck with the hand that they have to play and many of them seem to be taking very constructive steps as managements.

As part of our panel this week on Midwest Banks, we spoke with analysts Eileen Rooney of Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Given the shaky nature of the sector in the current economic climate, asked her a little bit about where investor interest stands now:

Ms. Rooney: I’m starting to hear some interest. I think investors are being selective though. After the run that we’ve seen in the stocks, a lot of the higher quality names are trading at pretty material premiums to the group, making them a little bit less attractive, and some of the less attractive banks are trading at really large premiums now also. Right now, investors want to move into the stocks but everything has had such a run that people are sort of scratching their heads, saying, “Maybe I’ll wait until these things pull back a little bit.” But people are definitely talking about it more, whereas over the last couple of quarters there was limited interest.

For the complete Midwest Banks Panel, including the full discussion of the space with Ms. Rooney and analyst Thomas Mitchell of Miller Tabak, click here. 

Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s new CEO, continues to mold the firm and make significant changes.  Bartz’s latest appointment of Tim Morse as the firm’s new CFO, again illustrates the level of change Bartz is attempting to put in place at Yahoo.  The Deal.com’s Corporate Dealmaker section had a piece on this latest appointment and what it might mean for Yahoo.  Check it out.For more:Paid Content

In our recent interview with William Grenier, CIO of UMB Investment Management, he talked a little bit about a stock that is demonstrative of his investment strategy, and is based right in Kansas City where UMB is located:

Mr. Greiner: A name that we have been utilizing now for quite some period of time that I feel pretty comfortable talking about is Cerner Corporation (CERN). Cerner is a local company here in Kansas City and they are involved in information technology, catering to the healthcare industry — large doctors’ offices and doctors’ practices in hospitals. They basically help doctors offices move toward a paperless office environment, which is one of the mandates coming out of Washington. The Obama Administration wants the health system to be a paperless kind of system and Cerner provides software packages for those end-users. 

For the full Investing Strategies report- including a complete interview with Mr. Greiner as well as a wide variety of other portfolio managers, click here.  

We spoke with analyst Steve O’Rourke of Deutsche Bank in our special focus on Alternative energy this week. He had two picks  in the Solar Energy space that he thought we key players in the U.S. market:

Mr. O’Rourke: Two key [companies] here in the US are First Solar (FSLR) and SunPower (SPWRA). Each of those companies has clear technology differentiation, First Solar with cadmium telluride and SunPower with high efficiency crystalline silicon. They are the technology leaders in the industry, and often differentiation does come down to technology. All that said, I think they have sustainable competitive advantages that translate to a lower cost of energy all the way down the value chain. If a company can maintain that cost of energy advantage, and maintain a strong balance sheet, they can weather the storm and build upon an already strong market position. Leveraging technology and market-based advantages will drive market share gains and set up the company to come out the other side much stronger.

For the complete Alternative Energy report, including a full interview with Mr. O’Rourke and a roundtable discussion of the space, click here.  

Michelle Leder of Footnoted.org has done it again.  Today she has an interesting take on Ed Whitacre, former AT&T CEO & chairman and soon to be chairman of the new GM.  Always informative, check out Michelle’s latest blog.

Damian Paletta and David Enrich wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal about growing pressure from the head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair, on executive management at CitiGroup.  According to the reporters,

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is pushing for a shake-up of Citigroup Inc.’s top management, imperiling Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, people familiar with the matter said.

The FDIC, under Chairman Sheila Bair, also recently pressed a fellow regulator to lower the government’s confidential ranking of Citi’s health — a change that would let regulators control the firm more tightly.

It is really difficult to determine how all these forces will ultimately play out and what they will mean for Pandit as well as a number of the executives under him.  It is certainly possible his tenure may not extend much longer, we will just have to wait and see.

For more:

Reuters

David Ellis of CNNMoney wrote a story today analyzing why many experts think bank CEOs in troubled banks will remain in their jobs.  While I do not fully agree, the story is a very worthwhile read.