As an exercise to contemplate before the session, SVNACD asked prospective attendees to “consider the following question: what would a skeptical activist shareholder think if they knew exactly how many emails you sent and how many minutes you spent reading on your blackberry during your last board committee meeting?” Lionel M. (Lon) Allan (right), Board Chair […]
Archive | November, 2009
Investors Against Genocide Fighting American Funds, Broadridge and Vague SEC Requirements: More Problems Solved Using Direct Registration
James McRitchie, 11/25/2009 ,
According to Investors Against Genocide, proxies issued directly by American Funds met the SEC standard (Rule 14a-4(a)(3) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) by clearly indicating the vote was about not investing in companies that substantially contribute to genocide. However, according to American Funds, 50 – 60% of its shareholders hold their shares in […]
MoxyVote.com
James McRitchie, 11/24/2009 ,
MoxyVote.com launched on November 20, 2009 in Beta and has already attracted considerable attention. Philly.com jumped right in with West Chester’s Moxy Vote boosts rebel shareholders on opening day. Cari Tuna did something a little more substantial with her Proxy-Voting Advocates Pool Resources on the Web (WSJ/11/23/09). Of the systems utilizing the internet to increase […]
Latham at Stanford: Governance Reform for Corporations and Democracies
James McRitchie, 11/18/2009 ,
On November 16, 2009, the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University presented a lunch-time lecture with Mark Latham, Director of VoterMedia.org and ProxyDemocracy.org. Latham is also a member of the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee, as a representative of individual investors. He has written extensively on how the internet can […]
How to Govern Corporations So They Serve the Public Good: Wrong Title, Right Book
James McRitchie, 11/15/2009 ,
William Sun’s excellent book is less on how to govern corporations to serve the public good than it is an analysis of corporate governance from the perspective of ontology, epistemology, and sociology of knowledge. Sun does an absolutely fascinating job of tracing the development of two pre-Socratic cosmologies that continue to shape modern thought. Heraclitus […]
Handbook of Social Capital
James McRitchie, 11/01/2009 ,
When Tocqueville visited the United States in the 1830s, it was our propensity for civic association that impressed him as the key to making democracy work. "Americans of all ages, all stations in life, and all types of disposition:’ he observed, "are forever forming associations. There are not only commercial and industrial associations in which […]