I'd love to go to Davos, just to watch all the networking at the WEF. That thought was prompted by reading Robert Peston's blog
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16702449
I'm not very keen on Peston, something about his style and strange inflection - I much prefer Stephanie Flanders' interpretation of the economic situation (and her dad was a lot more entertaining than Robert's...) But he's spot on in his comments about the impact on NEDs of encouraging investors to take more responsibility for corporate governance issues, although I think "castrating" is a bit over the top. Since the focus shifted to owners and stewardship some years ago I've asked this question at a couple of presentations by leading scholars but it's always been dismissed. I had a very interesting conversation once with an experienced NED who told me stories about the fatal effect of activist investors on boards she had sat on. Of course, there's a subtle difference between activist and active investors.

Much comment on executive pay after yesterday's statement by Vince Cable - decided that the best way of keeping up would be to put it in one of my lectures to force me to assimilate the developments.

I have been struggling to catch up with a to-do list that lengthened alarmingly when I was again hit by a bug - the cottonwool brain effect took a long time to clear and I seemed to become embroiled in meetings but this week I've recaptured some space and made some progress with more interesting things. I've managed to read and comment on two PhD theses, one for a colleague and the Belgian one - as I can't attend the private defence I have to send in my questions. I also have the new post-doc's to read which I am looking forward to. Marking a late MSc dissertation and a resit took time. Completing a REF impact statement took even longer!
I've managed to prepare my two guest lectures: the undergraduate one involves providing an exam question as well which took some time. And, as moderator for another assessment, I'll have some work to do on that shortly.

The ECGI conference at the Said was very interesting but the first day was in a room in the Law Faculty that was so cold I was shivering. Just as well that I'd read some of the papers beforehand - I could just about keep up with the fascinating discussion. The lawyers and economists really seem to work well with each other on these issues. I had a couple of useful conversations but didn't have the energy for my usual bouncing about and networking.

Am now pondering a paper that draws together my thoughts about independence and diversity with a title like "Be careful what you wish for". Crunch time for the Cadbury project next week.