Ten years ago at CorpGov.net: The CalPERS board voted to invest $125 million in CIM California Urban Real Estate Fund, despite objections from investment staff who recommended only $50 million because of the firm’s inexperience managing money for institutions, according to the ISS Friday Report, 9/22. California Treasurer Philip Angelides (who often favors the “double dividend” of investing in California), State Controller Kathleen Connell and CalPERS President William Crist objected to the investment.
The Sacramento Bee reported that former board members Villalobos and Shimada, as well as retired state state Senator William Campbell, will split a $2.5 million “placement agent” fee from CIM. (My old links are dead but see Highbeam Research and Entrepreneur.com. From later reports, it appears Shimada may have been paid much less than initially reported… see At CalPERS: One Pleads the 5th, One Quits)
Five years ago at CorpGov.net: The prevalence of ownership guidelines continues to increase as companies seek to align directors’ and shareholders’ interests. In particular, 67% of NYSE companies and 26% percent of NASDAQ companies disclose either director ownership guidelines or share retention requirements.
Microsoft joins Pfizer, Circuit City, and Walt Disney in requiring directors who receive a majority of “withhold” votes on the annual meeting ballot to submit his or her resignation to the board. (Microsoft Gives Holders More Say in Board Votes, 9/23/05, WSJ)
The Conference Board’s excellent “magazine of ideas and opinions,” Across the Board (now The Conference Board Review), carries a cover article in the Sept/Oct issue by James Krohe Jr. who observes, “CEOs are making more than ever, while their employees’ real wages are falling. Why is no one leaping to the barricades?” So far this year, more than 260 proxy resolutions limiting pay in some way were submitted to shareholders…ten times the number for such proposals in 2002.
The National Foundation for Corporate Governance (NFCG) is being set to implement the principles developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The agency will initially evolve corporate governance principles in three areas — institutional investors, independent directors and auditing.
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