Geoff Beattie is chief executive officer of Woodbridge Co. Ltd., a private holding company that manages the assets of Canada's Thomson family, including a majority stake in global information company Thomson Reuters Corp. and a stake in a consortium that owns The Globe and Mail. (MARK BLINCH /MARK BLINCH/REUTERS) Geoff Beattie is chief executive officer of Woodbridge Co. Ltd., a private holding company that manages the assets of Canada's Thomson family, including a majority stake in global information company Thomson Reuters Corp. and a stake in a consortium that owns The Globe and Mail. (MARK BLINCH /MARK BLINCH/REUTERS) Geoff Beattie is chief executive officer of Woodbridge Co. Ltd., a private holding company that manages the assets of Canada's Thomson family, including a majority stake in global information company Thomson Reuters Corp. and a stake in a consortium that owns The Globe and Mail. He is a member of the boards of Thomson Reuters, General Electric Co., Royal Bank of Canada and Maple Leaf Foods Inc. The results Governance poll I'm against the big movement of splitting the roles of CEO and chairman as a prescriptive rule or as a good governance rule. I think it's a good business rule in lots of instances, and I think it's an equally good business rule in many instances to have the CEO and chair in the same person. In what instances? For example, when you have large, complex businesses like the big banks, or IBM or GE, etc., I want my CEO to