EMC Corp ($EMC) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 5/1/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of seven funds when I checked on 4/30/2013. I voted with management 53% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank are voted in favor of […]
Archive | April, 2013
How I Voted: Kansas City Southern (KSU) – Vote Score 86%
Kansas City Southern ($KSU) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 5/2/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of three funds when I checked on 4/26/2013. I also checked OTPP, which voted the same as CalSTRS and Calvert. I voted with management 86% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each […]
How I Voted: Fluor Corp (FLR) – Proxy Score 58%
Fluor Corp ($FLR) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 5/2/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of two funds when I checked on 4/26/2013. I also checked OTPP, which voted with management except they voted against amending the stock plan. I voted with management 58% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to […]
Wayback Machine: Five, Ten and Fifteen Years Ago in Corporate Governance
Five years ago in Corporate Governance Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFMI) says federal securities regulators are recommending that no action be taken against the grocery chain over anonymous postings on financial-news Web sites by its chief executive. Mackey’s postings, including many to CorpGov.net publisher James McRitchie, surfaced when they were included among a trove of […]
How I Voted: MSCI – Proxy Score 100%
MSCI ($MSCI) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 5/1/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of only one fund when I checked on 4/25/2013, so I also took a quick look at OTPP’s vote. I voted with management 100% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. […]
How I Voted: Kimberly Clark (KMB) – Score 64%
Kimberly Clark ($KMB) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 5/2/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of five funds when I checked on 4/26/2013. I voted with management 64% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank are voted in favor of […]
Video Friday: The Retirement Gamble
Retirement is big business in America, but is the system costing workers and retirees more than what they’re getting in return, asks FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith. I thought the program was so good, I wanted to be able to access it from my site for future use. Watch The Retirement Gamble on PBS. See more […]
Institutional Investor Engagement Improves Disclosure of Bribery & Corruption Risks
A three-year engagement by PRI signatories has resulted in improved transparency and disclosure of anti-corruption strategies, policies and management systems by several global companies with significant exposure to corruption risk. (more…)
How I Voted: American Express Company (AXP) – Proxy Score 59%
American Express Company ($AXP) is a stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/29/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of six funds when I checked on 4/22/2013. I voted with management 59% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank are voted in favor of […]
Review Essay: Citizens DisUnited
Citizens DisUnited: Passive Investors, Drone CEOs, and the Corporate Capture of the American Dream both delights and informs as only Robert A.G. Monks can. No one else writes so well about topics like “How CEOs and the Business Roundtable Hijacked the World’s Greatest Wealth Machine” and those in the current volume because no one else has been as engaged […]
How I Voted: Kellogg (K) – Proxy Score 75%
Kellogg ($K) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/26/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had the wrong date for the meeting and hadn’t posted any votes when I checked on 4/23/2013. I voted with management 75% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank are voted […]
New Independent Investment Firm, Sustainvest Asset Management, LLC Starts in Petaluma
New investment advisory firm, Sustainvest Asset Management LLC focused on sustainable and responsible investing (SRI), has started operations. The firm focuses on investment management for individuals, foundations and non-profit organizations who are searching for an investment advisor who uses the 3 pillars of SRI: (more…)
How I Voted: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) – Proxy Score – 76%
Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/25/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of three funds when I checked on 4/22/2013. I voted with management 76% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank are voted in favor of […]
How I Voted: Citigroup (C) – Proxy Score 41%
Citigroup ($C) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/24/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of three funds when I checked on 4/21/2013. I voted with management 41% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank are voted in favor of […]
How I Voted: NCR – Proxy Score 12.5%
NCR ($NCR) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/24/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of two funds when I checked on 4/21/2013. I voted with management 12.5% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank are voted in favor of […]
How I Voted: Coca-Cola Company (KO) – Proxy Score 55%
Coca-Cola ($KO) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/24/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of five funds when I checked on 4/21/2013. I voted with management 55% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank are voted in favor of management’s recommendations. […]
How I Voted: Canadian National Railway (CNI) – Proxy Score 13%
Canadian National Railway ($CNI) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/23/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of three funds when I checked on 4/21/2013. I voted with management 13% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank will be voted […]
Video Friday: Director Watch
The Huffington Post has agreed to partner with the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) to host a new website called Director Watch. Director Watch will bring to light the names of people serving on corporate boards who get large paychecks even as the companies they oversee are going down the tubes. (more…)
Fair Harvard Fund Makes Progress: Alternative Endowment Should Be Permanent & Democratic
The Responsible Investment at Harvard Coalition recently announced it had invested contributions from 450 donors in a socially responsible fund withheld from Harvard University. The Fair Harvard Fund, designed as an alternative endowment fund, will be invested in the Portfolio 21 Global Equity Fund. According to Harvard undergraduate and investment committee member Michael Danto: (more…)
Help in Achieving CSR & Sustainability Awards and Recognition
Governance & Accountability Institute (G&A), a strategies and consulting firm focusing on Sustainability and 3BL Media, the leading distributor of Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Health, and Energy news and content, announced G&A Institute’s Awards & Recognition Program yesterday. G&A Institute inaugurated its Awards & Recognitions program to assist client companies in navigating the increasing number of leadership awards and […]
CorpGov Tidbits
PLANSPONSOR.com reports, a provision in President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget that pertains to employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) could result in a disincentive for offering the plans. The provision would eliminate Internal Revenue Code section 404(k), an incentive for ESOP creation and operation that permits a C corporation to deduct the value of dividends paid […]
Event Coverage: Why the Corporation is Failing Us and How to Restore Trust
Introduction by Professor Ronald J. Gilson, the Meyers Professor of Law and Business, Stanford Law School; Commentary of Lecture by Professor David F. Larcker, the James Irvin Miller Professor of Accounting, Stanford Graduate School of Business. The corporation is one of the most important and remarkable institutions in the world. It affects all our lives […]
Video Friday: Lucy Marcus Interviews Steve Waygood
Steve Waygood, of Aviva Investors, which owns 2% of UK equities, explains why fund managers still prefer to walk away, rather than trying to change a company culture. Wagood defines sustainability to include how mega-trends influence the firm. Retail investors doesn’t really understand what is being (more…)
Job Opportunity: Director of Law and Policy in Beautiful Vancouver
The Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE), a leading Canadian responsible investment education and advisory service for institutional investors, is accepting letters of interest for a full time, permanent position. (more…)
Guns and Divestment
The California Constitution provides that the Legislature may, by statute, prohibit retirement board investments if in the public interest and providing the prohibition satisfies specified fiduciary standards. Current law prohibits the boards of CalPERS and CalSTRS from investing public employee retirement funds in a company with active business operations in Sudan and Iran, as specified. AB […]
ITC Holdings (ITC): How I Voted at Special Meeting – Proxy Score 80
ITC Holdings (ITC) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/16/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of only one fund when I checked and voted on 4/9/2012. I voted with management 80% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank will […]
Harvard's Shareholder Rights Project
This guest post by Lucian Bebchuk originally appeared on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation on April 9, 2013 as Wachtell Lipton Was Wrong About the Shareholder Rights Project and is reproduced here with Professor Bebchuk’s permission. Martin Lipton quickly rebutted in a post entitled A Reply to Professor Bebchuk. The Shareholder Rights Project (SRP) is […]
Opportunity for Comment: Sustainability Listing Standards Proposed for Global Stock Exchanges
Yesterday, a group of investors announced a Consultation Paper with recommendations for integrating sustainability disclosure requirements into listing rules for U.S. and global stock exchanges. The draft recommendations were developed by nearly a dozen investors who are part of the Ceres-led Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR). BlackRock, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, and the […]
CalPERS: Passive Investing – Active Monitoring
Investment News reports that California CalPERS, the second biggest U.S. public pension fund, is weighing the idea of taking its massive $255 billion assets under management and moving to an all-passive portfolio. Should we care? Well, it would matter a lot for active managers who receive management fees from CalPERS, Josh Brown, who runs the popular financial […]
Video Friday – Corporate Speech: The Role of Corporations in Lobbying and Influencing Policy
Moderator: Jesse Eisinger, reporter at ProPublica, covering Wall Street and finance. Panelists: Martin Redish, NU Law; Robert A. Weinberger, Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute Initiative on Financial Security; former VP Government Relations, H&R Block; Chairman, Center for Responsive Politics; Lynn Stout, Cornell Law; Nell Minow, founder of GMI Ratings and co-founder and editor of the Corporate […]
Proxy Access Proposals Move Forward
On March 26, 2012, SEC staff issued their decision on a request by iRobot (IRBT) to exclude my proxy access proposal from their proxy. Although similar proposals had survived no-action requests last year, IRB management held out hopes that small changes made in the proposal might have made the proposal “vague” under rule 14a-8(1)(3) or “ordinary […]
Contest: Foxhole of the Year Award
Corporate Governance was founded in 1995 and we have never run a contest… until now. Announcing the Foxhole of the Year Award for the company that makes it the most difficult for shareowners turn up at their annual meeting. Our first nomination came from John Chevedden for FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE). According to the $17 billion company: […]
Foxhole of the Year Nominee
Shareowner activist John Chevedden suggested the first nomination for a company avoiding its owners this proxy season. (more…)
Proxy Advisors Get Tougher
I blogged about this in December (Key Changes to Proxy Advisor Policies for 2013), mainly referring to a recent Alert from Weil. Writing for Alliance Advisors, Shirley Westcott, has added to the mix. I’m not sure when it was actually written because the publication says January 2013 at the top but September 2012 at the bottom. Nevertheless, another […]
The AGM Votes are in and the Winner is ….
Guest Post from Stephen Viederman, Fellow, Governance & Accountability Institute, reposted here with the permission of Viederman and Accountability-Central.com. James McRitchie, Publisher of Corporate Governance reformatted the original to bring the footnotes up, hide urls and generated those wonderful ads. The Spring madness of annual corporate meetings (referred to as AGMs) is upon us. (more…)