Diverse, Independent Corporate Leadership

AB’s Executive Officers and Board of Directors oversee the firm’s strategic direction. The following board characteristics reflect our belief in strong governance guided by diversity of thought:

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Majority-independent 10-person Board of Directors
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Independent Chair of the Board
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Separation of duties between Chair and CEO
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Distinct skills, perspectives and backgrounds
 

Four Standing Board Committees

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Executive
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Audit & Risk
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Compensation and Workplace Practices
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Corporate Governance
 
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Adding Diverse Leadership Voices

In 2020, the Head of Diversity & Inclusion, the CEO of Asia-Pacific and the Head of the People team joined the operating committee, and AB welcomed two new members to its Board of Directors. These appointments bring important perspectives and expertise to the highest levels of the firm.

 

Fiduciary Obligations

We take our fiduciary obligations seriously, and we expect our people to treat all clients fairly and equitably—clients’ interests come first. We’ve built our business model on the foundation of a strong risk-aware culture, prudent risk-taking and a strong governance framework.

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Robust Compliance Framework

Firms are defined by the quality and rigor of their systems, training and oversight. We’ve designed our compliance framework to ensure that business operations stay compliant and that AB employees are empowered to raise and resolve potential issues.

The Code of Business Conduct and Ethics explains rules and policies governing employees, including conflicts of interest, employee personal trading, gifts and entertainment, and political contributions and activities.

We consider compensation-related matters and workplace practices, such as diversity and inclusion initiatives.

The Compliance Manual includes policies on mitigating potential conflicts of interest, investment guidelines for services and clients, research activities, security transactions with AB affiliates, and beneficial ownership reporting.

Risk Appetite is a set of guiding principles and industry best practices that bring consistency to how we identify, measure, monitor and manage risk firmwide.

AB employees have several paths for securely reporting and escalating ethical, compliance or other concerns, including:

  • Formal reporting channels (a supervisor or manager) or the AB Compliance Department, General Counsel’s Office or Head of Audit
  • The AB Ombuds Office—a confidential channel to get help on ethics‐related issues or questionable practices
  • EthicsPoint, a third‐party service that gives employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders a secure online way to report potential ethics and compliance issues quickly, easily and anonymously (if desired)
     
 
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Strong Security and Business Continuity Infrastructure

At AB, we take information security—in particular, the protection of clients’ and employees’ information—extremely seriously. Our Information Security Standards and Guidelines and Corporate Information Security Policy outline the efforts we undertake to secure information.

 

Continuity and Security

  • Our Chief Security Officer and his team monitor and control the processes related to our robust cybersecurity infrastructure.
  • All websites and cybersecurity infrastructure are also third-party tested with state-of-the-art software to safeguard sensitive information.
  • A comprehensive business continuity strategy and disaster recovery plan allow us to maintain critical functions while minimizing client impact.
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Governance and Proxy Voting

Advocating the Ownership Perspective

As shown by our voting record, we continue to support proposals that encourage companies to strengthen their corporate governance structures, support shareholder rights and strive for greater transparency.

 

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Public Company—Related Documents

These corporate governance documents help promote the effective functioning of the Board, its committees and our company as a whole.

 

Investment Advisor—Related Documents

These governance documents relate to our company’s activities as a federally registered investment advisor.

 

Client Relationship Summary (CRS) and Related Documents

 

NOTE: Section 303A.00 of the NYSE Listed Company Manual exempts limited partnerships from compliance with Section 303A.01, 303A.04 and 303A.05 of the NYSE Manual. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE: AB) is a limited partnership.

The Board of Directors of AllianceBernstein Corporation (“Board”), general partner of AllianceBernstein Holding, voluntarily has adopted a Corporate Governance Committee Charter that complies with Section 303A.04 and a Compensation Committee Charter that complies with Section 303A.05. These documents, as well as the membership of each Committee, may be found on this website, and we provided the location of these postings in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, as filed February 12, 2021. Please note that our Corporate Governance Committee has four members, three of whom are independent, and our Compensation Committee has four members, three of whom are independent.