Brendan Byrnes of Motley Fool interviews Jonathan Macey, Yale University’s Sam Harris Professor of Corporate Law, Corporate Finance and Securities Law. Jonathan has authored several books on corporations and the law. His most recent work is The Death of Corporate Reputation: How Integrity Has Been Destroyed on Wall Street (Applied Corporate Finance). (more…)
Archive | June, 2013
IRRCi Award Winners Announced
James McRitchie, 06/26/2013 ,
Two seminal research papers have won the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute’s (IRRCi) prestigious annual researchcompetition focused on the interaction of the real economy with investment theory. One research paper highlights the financial market’s ability to learn the value of corporate governance, and the second explores evolving fiduciary responsibilities resulting from the need for long-term value creation. IRRCi Chair Linda […]
Hong Kong Corporate Governance Excellence Awards 2013
James McRitchie, 06/25/2013 ,
The Hong Kong Corporate Governance Excellence Awards 2013, jointly organized by The Chamber of Hong Kong Listed Companies (“CHKLC”) and the Centre for Corporate Governance and Financial Policy (“CCGFP”) of Hong Kong Baptist University is open for nomination until September 23, 2013. (more…)
Corporate Elections: Looking in the Wrong Places
James McRitchie, 06/24/2013 ,
Bartlett Naylor, Financial Policy Reform Advocate, and Taylor Lincoln, Research Director, both with Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division, wrote an excellent post recently, Looking for Conflict in All the Wrong Places. They criticize the the Congressional hearing entitled “Examining the Market Power and Impact of Proxy Advisory Firms.” Instead of proxy advisors, Congress should be looking […]
Video Friday: Considerations of a Fossil Fuel Divestment Strategy
James McRitchie, 06/21/2013 ,
May 13th, 7:00 P.M. at First Church in Boston — Unitarian Universalist Bill McKibben of 350.org has called for the divestment of fossil fuel stocks as a key strategy in the fight against climate change. Thoughtful professionals within the socially responsible investment and liberal religious communities have taken reasoned and moral positions both for and […]
Quick Reads in Corporate Governance
James McRitchie, 06/20/2013 ,
Time to Move Down the Food Chain With Proxy Proposals How does director voting look so far this year? Eighty percent of directors up for election received over 90% shareholder support. And nine of ten received at least 80% support. Directors of large-cap companies had the highest rate of support, averaging 95% approval. Small cap and […]
Yes Men Best Chamber in Lawsuit
James McRitchie, 06/19/2013 ,
Maybe the SEC would be better off hiring the Yes Men to handle their rulemaking, rather than Robert Rice as SEC counsel, which could have a chilling impact on the SEC’s whistleblower program. (see SEC Chair Mary Jo White’s first big test by Eleanor Bloxham) The Yes Men today implored the US Chamber of Commerce to reconsider their recent decision to […]
Stratasys Ltd $SSYS – Proxy Score 90
James McRitchie, 06/19/2013 ,
Stratasys Ltd $SSYS is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/21/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of three funds when I checked on 5/18/2013. I voted with management 90% of the time. View Proxy Statement. I’m busy on vacation, so have no time to analyze my proxy. Instead, I’m simply trusting that CalSTRS […]
Sharegate Launches New Era of Shareowner Communications
James McRitchie, 06/18/2013 ,
Sharegate Inc., a new company that offers the investment community a modern and powerful financial social network, announced its launch recently, opening enrollment in the network to the general public. Sharegate is an information exchange platform that connects individual and instititional investors, publicly traded companies and other special interest groups. This platform allows companies to […]
Google Insiders Foil Chevedden's Latest Attempt to End Dual-Class Voting
James McRitchie, 06/17/2013 ,
Activist, John Chevedden pushed for Google to change its capital structure to give all shares an equal vote. Most of us own Class A stock with one vote per share. But Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with Chairman Eric Schmidt, control about 64% of the votes through Class B stock with 10 […]
Video Friday: Kalpona Akter Presents McRitchie's Proposal at WalMart
James McRitchie, 06/14/2013 ,
Kalpona Akter, a former child worker in the Bangladesh garment industry, is now an activist for worker safety in her country. At Walmart’s 2013 Annual Shareholders Meeting, Kalpona addressed the Board of Directors and shareholders about the horrible conditions many garment workers are exposed to in Walmart’s supply chain. She called on Walmart to take […]
CalPERS Has Several Open Positions, Including For Portfolio Managers
James McRitchie, 06/12/2013 ,
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) is looking for portfolio managers. Several positions in other classifications are also listed for open testing. The open portfolio manager positions, posted yesterday, pay $126,000 to $190,000 annually and work in asset allocation full time at the CalPERS headquarters in Sacramento. (more…)
Biogen Idec $BIIB: Proxy Score 41
James McRitchie, 06/11/2013 ,
Biogen Idec (BIIB) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/12/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of four funds when I checked on 6/8/2013. I voted with management 41% of the time. View Proxy Statement. (more…)
Facebook Inc ($FB) – Proxy Score 9
James McRitchie, 06/06/2013 ,
Facebook Inc ($FB) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/11/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected no votes when I checked on 6/5/2013. I voted with management 9% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Senator Warren recently called on the exchanges to block companies with unequal voting structures from listing. Too bad that didn’t happen years […]
Employees in Governance Seminar
James McRitchie, 06/05/2013 ,
I wish I could be in the UK for this seminar. I’d love to hear from anyone attending as to papers delivered, opinions expressed, etc. The role of employees in corporate governance will be the subject of a forthcoming PIRC seminar taking place on 13th June. (more…)
Garment Worker to Access WalMart Annual Meeting
James McRitchie, 06/05/2013 ,
I am delighted to announce that Kalpona Akter, a former garment worker from Bangladesh who is the executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, will have access to the floor of the WalMart ($WMT) annual meeting on Friday, June 7 in Bentonville, Arkansas. She has been an outspoken critic of sweatshop conditions in Bangladesh […]
Netflix: More Reasons for Proxy Access
James McRitchie, 06/04/2013 ,
Netflix, Inc. ($NFLX) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/7/2013. I reported how I voted and why I am proposing proxy access in Netflix Needs Proxy Access – Proxy Score 10 Out of 100. I’ll just add that so far this year, insiders of NFLX have sold approximately 635M in shares […]
Wal-Mart Stores $WMT – Proxy Score 57
James McRitchie, 06/03/2013 ,
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/6/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of three funds when I checked on 5/31/2013. I voted with management 57% of the time. View Proxy Statement. (more…)