You all love Warren Buffett, right? Would you pay $2.1 million to have lunch with the oracle of Omaha like this Chinese investment manager who decided to pick up the tab by taking part in a high-stakes online charity auction?

Zhao Danyang, 36, will have lunch with the US billionaire at a Smith and Wollensky steakhouse restaurant in New York. He can bring seven friends to enjoy Buffett’s company for, oh, maybe two hours. Three hours max… maybe.
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If you knew that a company does business in an ethical way, would you buy more of its shares? Would you do more business with that company? Does good corporate governance translate into shareholder or customer loyalty?

Jesus P. Estanislao, chairman of the Institute for Corporate Directors, thinks so. He says corporate governance is closely linked with performance. He doesn’t have the figures yet. He is still in talks with the University of Asia and the Pacific to do a thorough study on the topic.

During the ICD roundtable last Wednesday, Jess revealed the top 20 listed companies in the 2007 Corporate Governance Scorecard. Here is the list:

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