This the third part of my coverage of this year’s ICGN event in Boston. These posts haven’t been checked for accuracy and I haven’t taken the time to edit the prose to make complete well-flowing sentences. Still, I hope you find them of some value. Morning keynote on Differential Voting Rights: Corporate governance and investor protection in […]
Symantec Corporation (SYMC) provides security, backup and availability solutions and is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is on November 3, 2015. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of three funds when I checked and voted. I voted with the Board’s recommendations 50% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Read Warnings below. What follows are my recommendations on how to […]
This the second part of my coverage of this year’s ICGN event in Boston. I’m not a very fast note taker, these posts haven’t been checked for accuracy and I haven’t taken the time to edit the prose to make complete well-flowing sentences. Still, I hope you find them of some value. This one is primarily about […]
This year’s ICGN event in Boston was a real treasure, beginning with the panel on Political Lobbying Donations. I loved the fact that ICGN was held back to back with CII at the same hotel. I took a few notes at the conference and will share some of them with readers. I’m not a very fast […]
Never underestimate the ability of SEC staff to parse the rules in a creative way. Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14H (CF) does not adhere completely to original intent, which staff determined was “to prevent shareholders from using Rule 14a-8 to circumvent the proxy rules governing solicitations.” However, it gets us where we need to be in defining the […]
President Obama selected Democrat Lisa Fairfax and Republican Hester Peirce to serve on the SEC. Fairfax, a law professor at George Washington University, surfaced after liberal groups pressured the White House not to hire a corporate lawyer who had previously worked to represent Wall Street. She has been active in promoting diversity on corporate boards, serving […]
Tom Croft of Heartland Capital Strategies had a good post the other day on the proposed CEO pay rules: The US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) voted to adopt a new CEO-Worker Pay Ratio Rule at its August 5 Meeting, passing the rule mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (five years later). […]
ISS’s 2015-2016 global voting policy survey indicate investors are prepared to vote against directors at companies that ignore shareholders wishes and adopt proxy access mechanisms with overly burdensome ownership requirements. An overwhelming majority of investors said ISS should issue negative director recommendations if a shareholder proposal to provide proxy access receives majority support and a […]
Retail shareowners own about 1/3 of shares traded in the United States but vote only about 1/3 of the shares we own. Moreover, when we do vote, we frequently do so by blindly or unknowingly voting with management. In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, I explored five internet platforms that were designed […]
As I have advised companies where I have submitted proxy access proposals, I am not singling out your company with the aim of implementing proxy access. In fact, I would rather first target well-governed companies, which are more likely to adopt best practices as outlined by the Council of Institutional Investors. Best practices generally spread […]
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. BR, launched a newly upgraded ProxyVote site, which improves the shareholder communication and proxy voting experience for individual shareholders. Read the press release below, then my commentary. “ProxyVote.com has long been a key technology in the corporate governance process,” said Broadridge Investor Communications Solutions President Robert Schifellite. “Since its launch more than 17 years ago, usage has grown tremendously […]
Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG) provides consumer packaged goods and is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their next annual meeting is October 13, 2015. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of four funds when I checked and voted. I voted with the Board’s recommendations 56% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Read Warnings below. What follows are my recommendations on how to vote […]
The John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance of the Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics at the University of Delaware will host a Corporate Governance Symposium on March 15, 2016. The focus of the Symposium will be “Critical Issues for Boards & Institutional Investors in 2016.” The Symposium will feature up to four […]
I attended day one of the ICGN Boston Event and CII 2015 fall conference at the Westin Copley Plaza in Boston, MA. I will do at least a post or two on this wonderful combined meeting in future. However, I’m also negotiating with a couple of companies on proxy access and will be taking a much needed vacation […]