Brief History

The Global Corporate Governance Forum (the Forum) was founded in 2001 by the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) following the financial crises in Asia and Russia in the latter part of the 1990's. It was established to promote initiatives to raise corporate governance standards and practices in developing countries and emerging markets, using the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance as the basis for its work. The Forum's work program was launched in 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico at the Financing for Development meetings organized by the United Nations.

In its first phase, the Forum placed considerable emphasis on supporting public-private dialogue across all the regions of the world, working closely with the OECD in its series of Roundtable regional meetings that led to various policy papers on issues critical to corporate governance reform. During this period the Forum also supported regional director training networks; research on development policy issues relating to corporate governance; and, developed its first toolkit providing practical guidance for building director training organizations.

Moving into its second phase, the Forum is gradually shifting its focus towards issues of implementation and technical assistance, while advancing its strategy of "Better Companies, Better Societies."