Last week I uploaded a revised template for proxy access proposals (see Avoiding Proxy Access Lite: QUALCOMM Proposal) to address some of the problems identified by the Council of Institutional Investors in their August 5th report, Proxy Access: Best Practices. Thanks to the quick response from several readers, I have already made a few improvments. Please use […]
Here in the first days of autumn, it seems that every day there is another article about the sorry extreme that executive compensation has become at so many companies. With the many tools now at the disposal of the proxy voter, one has to ask, how did we get here, and how do we fix […]
As I reported in Replacing Board Members: The Elephant in the Room, SVDX and Stanford University’s Rock Center put on another great event last week that just about packed the house! These events are always top notch. A few nibbles and coffee or tea for breakfast, excellent company and a great program — what more could you want on third […]
As I have mentioned in other posts (see especially Proxy Access Lite: Victories at Whole Foods, H&R Block), several companies have adopted proxy access ‘lite’ with provisions that make implementation excessively difficult and less effective than they would have been under the SEC’s universal proxy access Rule 14a-11. Although I withdrew proposals at several companies, based on the […]
As I have mentioned in several other posts (see especially Proxy Access Lite: Victories at Whole Foods, H&R Block), several companies have adopted proxy access ‘lite’ with provisions that make implementation excessively difficult and less effective than anticipated by the SEC’s vacated Rule 14a-11. At the beginning of last season I announced that proxy access was […]
Finally, an SVDX/Rock Center event that just about packed the house! I’ve complained frequently that people, especially students from nearby universities, are missing out on these excellent programs. Attendees still looked mostly like directors to me. If students ever show up in large numbers, we’ll have to move to an arena or stadium. I’m not […]
FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) provides a portfolio of transportation, e-commerce and business services under the FedEx brand and is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their next annual meeting is September 28, 2015. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of two funds when I checked and voted. I also picked up the votes of CalSTRS in my table below, since ProxyDemocracy […]
All In For Impact: The 26th Annual SRI Conference will take place November 3–5, 2015 at The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, CO. I am pleased to announce conference scholarships for SRI/ESG investing are now being made available to students and young professionals. The SRI Conference is an annual gathering of the responsible investment industry designed to stimulate, inspire, […]
The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi) is accepting submissions for its fourth annual Investor Research Award competition for research that examines the interaction between the real economy and investment theory. Practitioners and academics are invited to submit research papers by September 15, 2015, for consideration by a blue-ribbon panel of judges with deep finance and investment experience. Two research […]
Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASD:WFM) is a retailer of natural and organic foods and grocer. The Company has one operating segment, natural and organic foods supermarkets and is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their next annual meeting is September 15, 2015. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of four funds when I checked and voted. I voted with the […]
H & R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) provides tax preparation and banking services and is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their next annual meeting is September 10, 2015. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of one fund when I checked and voted. I voted with the Board’s recommendations 67% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Read Warnings below. What follows are my […]
There is not an issue of concern to any investor that is not being systematically harmed by unfair proxy vote counting practices. Although it is late in the day, we ask you to weigh in on the ISS survey to ask them to recommend FOR simple-majority voting and counting proposals in the upcoming proxy season. As […]
As part of my series Retail Shareowners – Facilitating Votes and Activism (see Part 1 and Part 2), I have begun looking more closely at the Australian Shareholders’ Association (ASA). In researching their activities I came across the videos below of interviews with Don Hyatt. Most are somewhat dated but they still provide interesting background. Shareowners in […]
The last of my notes from the Society’s 2015 National Conference in Chicago, 6/24-27/20015. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Sorry to be posting so long after the event but I still find them useful… and going through my notes may help you remember some of the more interesting points if you attended or get some sense of what went on […]
Attention everyone who thinks ISS has too much say over how proxies are voted. It might be a good time for you to see how those policies are actually developed. No, ISS doesn’t develop its policies by reviewing all the academic research to determine which types of proxy proposals create value or are correlated with […]
In response to a proxy access proposal I filed earlier this year, Clorox Co (NYSE:CLX), manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products, adopted proxy access (press release, amended bylaws). I am declaring another victory and withdrawing my proposal. While I filed a standard proxy access proposal seeking the ability of shareholders with 3% of shares held for […]