La figura del lead independent director

The lead independent director is a figure (originally born in USA) that has been recommended for about 15 years by the Corporate Governance Code of Borsa Italiana and that has also a fair diffusion in practice. Nevertheless, not only its appointment has never been imposed by hard law, but also the academic literature has paid little attention to it. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to better analysing this office, in order to assess whether it is actually able to substantially improve the corporate governance of Italian listed companies and whether (and under which conditions) it may be appropriate to impose its appointment in a mandatory way.