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Corporate Governance & Business Ethics

Governance of Ethics and ESG Matters

Following our core operating principle of “thinking like owners,” we maintain robust and owner-focused corporate governance practices. White Mountains’ Corporate Governance Guidelines outline our overall approach to corporate governance.

White Mountains maintains policies that establish requirements for ethical behavior across our parent company and subsidiaries. The White Mountains Code of Business Conduct covers a wide range of business practices and procedures, setting sound principles for both our external dealings and our internal behavior. Certain of these topics are reinforced and further elaborated in our Insider Trading Policy, our policy for Reporting of Illegal, Improper or other Questionable Behavior or Accounting/Auditing Complaints, and our Anti-Bribery Policy. Employees at our parent company and key operating subsidiaries must review and acknowledge these policies.

The White Mountains Board is responsible for overseeing our management of ESG matters. Our Board’s committees play a vital role in ESG governance.

  • The Compensation/Nominating & Governance (CNG) Committee oversees our strategy with respect to corporate governance; environmental stewardship, sustainability and corporate social responsibility; and succession planning for senior executives.
  • The Finance Committee formulates and approves the investment policy for White Mountains, including the incorporation of ESG considerations.
  • The Audit Committee oversees ESG risks as an integrated aspect of its risk management responsibilities.

At the management level, we have a group of executives who are responsible for ESG matters.

In order to align the financial interests of our parent company executive officers and our non-employee Directors with those of our shareholders, White Mountains maintains Executive Share Ownership Guidelines and Non-Employee Director Share Ownership Guidelines.

Please visit our Corporate Governance page for additional information.

How We Operate

White Mountains operates a parent holding company from which we allocate our owners’ capital; steward the businesses in which we invest; and fulfill our accounting, reporting and compliance requirements as a public company. Our philosophy is to invest in businesses with strong management teams and to provide them with the necessary support, tools, capital, incentives and freedom to run their businesses independently, subject to our oversight. White Mountains’ governance of ESG matters applies primarily to our parent company.