Professor Gensler Congratulations. When confirmed to chair the SEC, you can take a major role in reconstructing our financial and economic systems. Below, I offer the unsolicited advice of a real “Main Street” investor. Central to a recovery that helps America address its many issues (institutional racism, inequality, climate change, anomie, etc.) is a system […]
Woodward 2021 Shareholder Presentation 1/27
Woodward 2021 Shareholder Presentation: Background My proxy voting recommendations for the January 27, 2021 meeting can be found at Woodward 2021: Empower Workers. The meeting begins at 7 AM Pacific Time. View the Proxy Statement via SEC’s EDGAR system. This post is a draft of my presentation of Proposal #5. Registered shareholders will be sent a link one hour prior […]
Gary Gensler SEC Chairman: Predictions and Advice
Gary Gensler, a former financial regulator, and Goldman Sachs banker, now at MIT, is rumored Biden’s choice to head the SEC. As head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), he helped uncover interest-rate rigging on Libor, which underpins $300T in loans. Banks had to cough up $9B in fines. He pushed for transparency around derivative trading and […]
Woodward 2021: Empower Workers
Woodward 2021 annual meeting is January 27th, 8AM Mountain Standard Time. Shareholders need to register in advance (by 3PM MST on 1/25/21) to attend the virtual meeting. Register at the bottom of this page. You cannot cut and paste your 12 or 16 digit control number. You must enter it twice, along with some other […]
Email About 2FA Status
Email about 2FA Status was sent out automatically to subscribers on January 11th. Please accept our apology and ignore the email. Email About 2FA Status We installed a plug-in to require two-factor verification to modify the website. This seemed like a reasonable security measure. I had no idea it would also apply to users attempting […]
Empowering Employees 2021
Empowering Employees 2021 through workers on boards, workers councils, director liaisons, and/or ESOP trusts. Help us move to more democratic workplace cultures. (more…)
Corporate Accountability Spring 2021 Online Workshop
Corporate Accountability Spring 2021: Restoring the Balance. Our online course repeats, again lead by shareholder advocate Jim McRitchie. The class is offered through the Renaissance Society, an extension program of California State University, Sacramento. The class is held on Zoom, so can be taken from anywhere with a good internet connection. Mondays, Feb. 8 to […]
Virtual Shareholder Meetings 2021
Virtual Shareholder Meetings 2021. The Report of the 2020 Multi-Stakeholder Working Group on Practices for Virtual Shareholder Meetings came out about a month ago. I (James McRitchie) was happy to participate in the group, which did a good job of considering diverse views. Kudos to Amy Borrus, Darla Stuckey, and Doug Chia. My major contribution ensured […]
Majority Voting 2021: Corporate Petitions
Majority Voting 2021. Proxy proposals provide powerful tools to hold corporations accountable. YourStake.org is an online petition platform for financial advisors. The combined savings of many citizens make up the majority of investment into big companies. Companies already respond to big investors. Now they will respond to you if you let them know your concerns. Find a financial […]
Guidewire Software 2020: Simple Majority Vote Standard
Guidewire Software 2020 annual meeting is December 15th. To enhance long-term value. Vote AGAINST Andrew Brown, Michael Keller, Auditor, Pay, Stock Plan. Vote FOR Adopt Simple Majority Vote Standard. The virtual-only webcast will start at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time. (more…)
WD-40 2020: Employee Voice
WD-40 2020, where employee voice and empowerment is on the ballot. The WD-40 2020 annual meeting is Tuesday, December 8th. To enhance long-term value, vote AGAINST the auditor and FOR all other items, including #4. $WDFC (more…)
N-PX Data Tagging: Critical to Our Future
N-PX Data Tagging? Yes, that might be the most important rulemaking the SEC could undertake to move our economy in a positive direction. SEC Commissioner Allison Herron Lee gives voice to this small change that could have a dramatic impact on how America invests (about 7 minutes into the video below). Read the text. Structuring […]
Broadridge 2020: Dark Money
Broadridge 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders will be held on Thursday, November 19, 2020, at 9:00 AM Eastern. Attend meeting online, vote your shares, and submit questions during the meeting by visiting www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/BR20. You need the Control Number provided to you (usually by your broker or bank) to join the meeting. To enhance long-term value: […]
Election Fraud Attempt by Citigroup
Election fraud attempt by Citigroup points to the need for more participation in decision-making by employees to ensure ethical conduct. Citigroup tries to cheat by telling us we need to meet SEC rules today for the 2021 AGM that don’t become effective until 2022. With a market cap of more than $82B, don’t tell me […]
Marrone Bio Last Chance to Vote
Marrone Bio Last Chance to Vote Marrone Bio Innovation’s AGM is tomorrow, October 29th at 9 AM Pacific. Unless you attend the meeting and vote quickly, today is your last chance. See my voting recommendations. I (James McRitchie) will present my proposal. It appears on the proxy as follows: #5 “To Consider a stockholder proposal […]
ESG Options in DC Plans
ESG Options in DC Plans? Morningstar can help you find them. President Trump’s Department of Labor aims to limit ESG investing in retirement plans, although even law firms recognize the need for ESG research. Fund flows and investor interest remained high according to Morningstar’s research, even amid the year’s earlier market downturn. Insights from Morningstar discuss how the Presidential […]
Marrone Bio Innovations 2020: VOTE!
Marrone Bio Innovations 2020. October 29, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time. The Annual Meeting will be a virtual meeting of stockholders conducted online by live audio webcast. Attend the virtual meeting, vote your shares electronically and submit questions during the meeting by visiting www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/MBII2020, using your control number. To enhance long-term value: Withhold your […]
MBII Notice of Exempt Solicitation
MBII Notice of Exempt Solicitation Marrone Bio Innovations Inc. (MBII) Shareholder Alert Voluntary submission by James McRitchie, 9295 Yorkship Ct., Elk Grove, CA 95758 Shareholder since 2016 Please vote for Proposal No. 5 before October 28th Stockholder Proposal: Phase in Simple Majority Vote The proposal’s description in the Proxy Voting Instructions Form (VIF) violates SEC Rule 14a-4(a)(3) Rule […]
Conservative TV and Corporate Social Responsibility
Conservative TV and Corporate Social Responsibility. Again, public opinion is the driver. A 2017 Pew Research Center study found that 37% of Americans get their news from local television news. Only 28% get their news from cable TV, while 26% tune into network news. Sinclair Broadcasting expands by acquiring those trusted local TV stations and […]
Political Disclosure Up
Political disclosure up at large publicly held U.S. companies. That’s the conclusion of The Center for Political Accountability (CPA) and The Wharton School’s Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research. Adoption of sound transparency and oversight practices for their political spending is part of an accelerating trend, according to a new scorecard. Investors want to hold […]
Climate Risk Hypocrites
Climate Risk Hypocrites exposed by Morningstar’s Jackie Cook and Tom Lauricella. The authors found support for climate-related proposals rose at Fidelity, State Street Global Advisors, and Vanguard. Support fell at American Funds and BlackRock. (Top Fund Companies’ Climate Change Votes: A Very Mixed Picture) (more…)
BlackRock 8-K Positive CorpGov
BlackRock 8-K of October 6th contains good news for shareholders. I frequently complain about BlackRock because their actions, especially proxy voting, are out of sync with their positive ESG statements. (see BlackRock Action Update) However, it is also appropriate to give their board credit for proposing important corporate governance reforms to be voted at the […]
Illegal Marrone Bio Vote Suppression
Illegal Marrone Bio proxy threatens not only their own shareholders but those of all companies. If Marrone Bio gets away with it, so can others. What can we do when a company violates the law and the SEC fails to act? We could go to court but that’s expensive. Instead, let’s mobilize. If enough cry foul, […]
Faking It
Faking It. Remember those allegedly fake letters from retail investors supporting the US SEC’s controversial proxy advisor rule? [And the rules to “modernize” shareholder proposals, SEC Trampled Shareholder Rights.] Global Proxy Watch [GPW] remembers. They published the following yesterday [reproduced below with a little reformatting and my two cents in brackets]: (more…)
ReproReceipts Campaign by UltraViolet
#ReproReceipts Campaign by UltraViolet highlights hypocrisy and Calls for Accountability at AT&T, Coca Cola, Disney, Nike, Procter & Gamble, and Uber
SEC Trampled Shareholder Rights
SEC Trampled Rights. September 23 was a bad day for shareholders, society, and the environment. It was an action typical of the Trump Administration, where political appointees work counter to the missions of regulatory bodies. The only significant “support” for the amendments from shareholders came from a few fake letters, which Chairman Clayton read into […]
Form 13F Reporting: Comment on Proposed SEC Rules
Form 13F reporting is another obscure SEC requirement. Most investors know nothing about it. However, following the money is important. Add your voice to thousands sounding the alarm about proposed changes. Form 13F is how funds report to the SEC what they have invested in. Like many rules proposed during the Trump Administration, these are […]
Political Party of Funds
Political Party of Funds No, you can’t find that information on CorpGov.net. But, you can at YourStake. Go there now to find out how much money the companies in your mutual fund donate to Democratic and Republican candidates. (more…)
You Missed This: Research in Sustainable Finance
“You Missed This” will distill this season’s sustainable finance papers. We highlight key findings and trends, including important recent work that might have been overlooked. One digestible event for your research needs. (more…)
#MICUS 2020 Comparing Sustainable Funds
#MICUS 2020, the Morningstar conference, had so much to write about during day 1 that it may take me a month or so to go through it. Register for day 2 if you missed the first day. I just heard Larry Fink, of BlackRock. For someone heading the largest pile of investment money in the […]