RiskMetrics Group is pleased to present its 2008 Board Practices Study. Some of the key findings from the study revealed:

1) Board independence levels rose to 74 percent in 2007 after having leveled off at 72 percent in 2006 (the first year no increase at all was found from the prior year’s levels).

2) 45 percent of major U.S. companies had separated the posts of chairman and CEO at the time of their most recent shareholder meeting—an increase of 20 percentage points since 2000, and four percentage points over the previous year.

3) The number of companies with staggered boards continued to decline in 2007, to 52 percent overall, down from 55 percent in 2006.

To learn more about the findings from the study, please tune into the "State of the Board" interview with Carol Bowie of RiskMetrics Group’s Governance Institute, and Patrick McGurn, special counsel at RiskMetrics Group. To access the study, please visit here.