Dell (DELL) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up July 15 and today is the last day to vote using the MoxyVote.com platform. MoxyVote.com had seven “good causes,” including two consolidations. ProxyDemocracy.org had five funds voting. I see none of the five are voting in favor all the board members. Most are withholding votes against most directors. I wish the funds would announce why they are voting how they do on either site. Since most of the funds listed on both MoxyVote.com and ProxyDemocracy.org voted to withhold against all directors, I voted that way as well but I voted to ratify the auditors.
Looking at Dell’s proxy, the Summary Compensation Table shows that Stephen J. Felice, one of two presidents, was the highest paid named executive officer at a little over $11 million. Using the United States Proxy Exchange (USPX) released draft guidelines, I am voting against most pay packages over the median for large-caps of $9 million. Dell falls into that category. AFSCME, Trillium, and Domini also voted no with regard to say on pay. As I have with all companies, I voted for a SOP frequency of every year.
I voted in favor of AFSCME’s proposal to require an independent chair. This is simple good governance and is slowly becoming the standard. Of course, I voted in favor of my own proposal to allow shareowners to act by written consent, another good governance standard that has been adopted by hundreds of companies. Along with all the funds listed at both MoxyVote.com and ProxyDemocracy.org I voted against Linda Bush’s proposal for a quarterly dividend.
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