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ERROR: type should be string, got "https://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2017/08/23/the-morning-ledger-aug-23-newsletter-draft/\nCFO Journal.\nMorning Ledger\nThe Morning Ledger: Companies Rally Support For Tax Overhaul\nTatyana Shumsky\nBiographyTatyana Shumsky\n@MissShumsky\nTatyana.Shumsky@wsj.com\nAug 23, 2017 7:05 am ET\nSign up for the Morning Ledger, emailed to you each weekday morning. Follow us on Twitter: @CFOJournal. All CFO Journal-produced content can be accessed without a subscription.\nDavid Abney, UPS Chairman and CEO, addresses media and staff during a news conference on May 9, 2017.\nAgence France-Presse/Getty Images\nGood morning. Large companies are turning to employees and customers to rally broader support for corporate-tax changes as they step up efforts to prod Congress into advancing the overhaul they've been seeking for years, writes WSJ's Richard Rubin.\nIn addition to efforts by corporations' lobbyists and an ad campaign run by The Business Roundtable, companies are inviting senior lawmakers to their facilities and encouraging workers to contact their representatives in Congress.\nUnited Parcel Service Inc. chief executive David Abney hosted Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Texas), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, at the company's global air hub in Louisville and bolstered the chairman's tax pitch. “We believe this issue’s so important that you’ve got to get engaged. We can’t ensure success. We can ensure that our point of view and our customers’ point of view is heard,” Mr. Abney said.\nStill, businesses can have a tough case to make in connecting the corporate-tax cuts they seek with benefits for the broader public. Companies and Republicans argue that corporate tax cuts would help workers because they would encourage productivity-boosting investments and lead to wage growth in the long run.\nCompanies don’t all agree on the details of a corporate tax bill, and their positions are bound to fracture somewhat as soon as Mr. Brady releases legislation, which could happen next month.\nTHE DAY AHEAD\nHP Inc., Raymond James Financial Inc. and Williams-Sonoma Inc. report earnings today.\nU.S. new home sales are due out at 2 p.m. ET\nCFO JOURNAL EXCLUSIVE\nIntuit CFO Neil Williams\nIntuit CFO to retire, successor named. Intuit Inc., the maker of QuickBooks and TurboTax, said finance chief R. Neil Williams will step down next year, to be replaced by Michelle Clatterbuck, a senior finance executive at the company.\nMr. Williams has garnered a reputation for building a deep bench of financial leaders during his near decade-long tenure at the financial software company. Just last month, another Intuit finance team member, Ned Segal, was named CFO of Twitter Inc.\n“I’m leaving Michelle with a good team, but this is another place where she will put her own stamp on things,” Mr. Williams told CFO Journal in an interview.\nCFOs on multiple boards may deliver subpar results. When S&P 500 CFOs serve on two or more outside boards, their employers' returns and earnings lag, according to a report by Equilar, writes WSJ’s Theo Francis.\nThe study considers 289 companies with the same CFO for three years, and finds median three-year returns of 3.3% at the 16 companies where the CFOs served on two or three outside boards. Returns reached a little over 10% where the CFO served on just one outside board (78 CFOs) or none (195 executives). Companies also paid CFOs serving on multiple outside boards about 20% more. Correlation doesn't necessarily reflect causation, Equilar stresses, but it does raise important questions.\nTesco launches investor compensation program. Tesco PLC, the largest U.K. supermarket chain by market share, on Wednesday launched a compensation program for investors after it overstated its profits by £326 million ($417.3 million) in 2014, writes Nina Trentmann.\nThe company issued a trading statement Aug. 29 2014, and corrected it on Sept. 22, 2014. Tesco committed to paying investors £85 million in compensation for losses incurred on shares and bonds bought between Aug. 29 2014 and Sept. 19, 2014 as part of a settlement with the Financial Conduct Authority.\nAround 10,000 holders of Tesco shares and certain bonds are entitled to compensation at a rate of 24.5 pence per share plus interest of 4% for retail investors. Compensation needs to be claimed through KPMG LLP, the firm administering the program, by Feb. 22, 2018.\nJohn Watson, chairman and CEO of Chevron, at a Houston conference in March.\nChevron CEO to resign. Chevron Corp. chief executive John Watson plans to step down as the company seeks a new leader to navigate the changing landscape of the global energy markets.\nWal-Mart, Google partner to challenge Amazon. Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are joining forces in a partnership that includes enabling voice-ordered purchases from the retail giant on Google's virtual assistant, in a move that will challenge rival Amazon.com's grip on the next wave of e-commerce.\nBlackstone weighs IPO of Gates Corp. Blackstone Group LP is considering an initial public offering of auto-parts maker Gates Corp. that would value the company at as much at $9 billion.\nVerizon to reduce video quality, launch new data plans. Verizon Communications Inc. said it would start limiting video quality for all customers across its network and offer new data plans that effectively raise the price of its current unlimited data offer.\nElliott notches win in BHP battle. BHP Billiton Ltd. announced plans to sell its onshore U.S. oil and gas operations, a move that comes after months of pressure from activist investor Elliott Management Corp.\nToshiba advances talks on chips business with Western Digital. Japan's Toshiba Corp. is prioritizing talks with partner Western Digital to sell its memory chip business, as negotiations with a previously preferred bidder have stalled, according to Nikkei.\nWal-Mart nears deal to offer loans. Financing provider Affirm Inc. is in talks to offer installment loans to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. customers, a move that points to retailers’ thirst for new customers with limited credit histories and greater competition among credit-card providers.\nJ&J talc verdict expands battlefield. A $417 million award by a California jury in a lawsuit alleging Johnson & Johnson's talc-based products cause cancer has opened a new front in the litigation, shaking the company's hopes that the cases were only gaining traction in Missouri, Reuters reports.\nKroger CEO talks Amazon, ugly tomatoes. Kroeger Co.’s chief executive Rodney McMullen is sacrificing profits to provide e-commerce pickup options at hundreds of stores to fend off Amazon.com Inc. and lowering prices on staples to compete with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and European discount chains like Aldi.\nNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un acknowledges a welcome from the military officers during his visit to Korean People's Army's Strategic Forces in North Korea in August.\nU.S. Treasury sanctions Chinese, Russian firms for aiding North Korea. The U.S. targeted a host of Chinese and Russian companies and related individuals it accuses of aiding Pyongyang, expanded its broader efforts to clamp down on financing critical to North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program.\nEU raises 'serious doubts' over Bayer, Monsanto deal. Bayer AG's takeover of Monsanto Co. faces deeper scrutiny from European antitrust regulators who say they have \"serious doubts\" about uniting two of the world's largest manufacturers of genetically engineered crop seeds and pesticides.\nWhere was Wells Fargo’s auditor? Wells Fargo & Co.’s external auditor KPMG should have served as the first line of defense against the misbehavior that toppled the bank’s CEO and left thousands of workers without jobs.\nU.S. Treasury scrutinizes Honolulu. The U.S. Treasury Department added a seventh city, Honolulu, and a broader range of transactions when extending for another six months a data-collection program to aid a crackdown on money laundering in real estate.\nU.S. plan to exit Nafta arbitration panel runs afoul of business interests. U.S. trade officials are working on a proposal to let the U.S. withdraw from a corporate arbitration system at the heart of the North American Free Trade Agreement, upsetting big American companies that say the system protects their investments overseas.\nBanks act like rates won’t go up. Some banks are lending as if interest rates will never rise -- loading up on a record amount of loans and securities that carry low rates for years.\nCFO MOVES\nDairy products produced by Dean Foods Co.\nDean Foods Co., a Dallas-based food and beverage company said its finance chief Chris Bellairs will depart the company, effective Sept. 1. The company named Scott Vopni, the chief accounting officer, interim CFO while it conducts a search for Mr. Bellairs’ successor. Mr. Vopni joined Dean Foods in 2008 as its controller and has held several finance roles at the company, including heading up investor relations, according to a company press release. Mr. Bellairs joined the company in 2008 from PepsiCo Inc. and became CFO in 2013, according to the Dean Foods’ website. His compensation in 2016 totaled $1.9 million, which included a base salary of $580,000, according to a regulatory filing.\nBrinker International Inc., the Dallas-based owner of Chili’s and Maggiano’s restaurants, named Joseph Taylor its new finance chief, effective immediately. Mr. Taylor has 17 years of experience at Brinker, holding several finance positions, including, treasurer, head of corporate affairs, investor relations and most recently, interim CFO. Mr. Taylor succeeds Thomas Edwards Jr., who left the company in April to take on the CFO role at Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. Salary details for Mr. Taylor were not disclosed.\nT. Rowe Price Group Inc., a Baltimore investment management firm named Céline Dufétel finance chief, effective February 2018. She succeeds Kenneth Moreland, who is retiring after nearly 14 years with the firm, as previously announced. Ms. Dufétel, joins T. Rowe Price from Neuberger Berman, where she was most recently managing director and global head of marketing and client service, according to a company press release. She began her professional career with McKinsey & Company. Salary details were not disclosed.\nWillis Towers Watson PLC, a global advisory company named Michael Burwell CFO, effective Oct. 2. Mr. Burwell succeeds Roger Millay, who announced his retirement in April. Mr. Burwell joins the firm from PwC LLP, where he served in a variety of senior positions including head of global transformation, chief operating officer and CFO in the U.S. Mr. Burwell will receive a base salary of $750,000, a sign-on bonus of $1.45 million, a bonus targeted at 125% of his base salary and an annual target award of 200% of his base salary, as part of his participation in the company’s long-term incentive program, according to a regulatory filing.\nShire PLC, a Dublin-based pharmaceutical company said finance chief Jeff Poulton will leave the drug company at the end of the year. Mr. Poulton is leaving to become CFO at Indigo Ag Inc. a Boston-based agriculture biotech startup. The company will begin a search for his replacement. Mr. Poulton joined Shire in 2003 and was named interim CFO in 2015 and later CFO.\nHudson's Bay Co., the Canadian owner of the Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor department store chains, named former J.C. Penney Company Inc. CFO Edward Record its newest finance chief. Mr. Record will assume the CFO role at Hudson's Bay on Aug. 28. Prior to J.C. Penney, Mr. Record was the chief operating officer of Stage Stores, where he oversaw all the store locations, IT, real estate, e-commerce and logistics. He has also worked at Kohl's Corp. and Belk Department Store. Hudson's Bay earlier this year ended talks to acquire Neiman Marcus and is also facing off with an activist, who is pressuring the company to sell its real estate, among other measures.\nThe Morning Ledger from CFO Journal cues up the most important news in corporate finance every weekday morning. Nina Trentmann contributed to today’s Ledger. Send tips, suggestions and complaints to the editor: kimberly.johnson@wsj.com.\nPrevious The Morning Ledger: Finance Chiefs Look to Free Up Working Capital Next J.Crew Promotes Treasurer to CFO Post"