Boards Must Weigh Material Risk When a CEO Contracts Coronavirus

Chief executives of big public companies, like most everyone else in the U.S., are at risk of exposure to the Covid-19 virus—but if a CEO tests positive, experts say that’s probably a “material risk” to shareholders. The big question is: What must executives and directors reveal, and when?

Tom Lin, a Temple University law professor who has researched CEO privacy and disclosure, recommends transparency.

“Given what’s happening in the world and how the marketplace and society is really focused on this sort of pandemic,” he said, “it would be prudent for any CEO who’s been diagnosed with Covid to disclose ...