Fair and Balanced was the motto of Fox News. In 2017 they moved to a slightly more accurate “Most Watched, Most Trusted.” Most boards of directors, especially pension funds, like CalPERS, with a fiduciary duty to members that elect some directors and influence the election of others, want to at least appear fair and balanced […]
Musings Missed Musings; not all of mine got mentioned at the Forum. I had the distinct pleasure of being a panelist at the Public Funds Forum 2022 with Maine’s Treasurer Henry Beck and David Wescoe, Executive Director of the Texas Municipal Retirement System. Our topic was Best Practices in Fund Governance. I thought of several […]
ICCR Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide now includes all proposals filed so far for the 2022 season by Corporate Governance. I could not be more delighted, since this is the group that is most responsible for inspiring my own work! ICCR has published its Guide every year since 1974. The 2022 Guide discusses 436 resolutions filed by […]
2021 Morningstar Investment Conference moved deeply into ESG impact investing but remained relatively light on voting advice and education. At least one panel and one speaker did focus somewhat on voting. Below are a few brief notes. Unusually, the 2021 Morningstar Investment Conference was held on the same days as the Fall CII Conference. (more…)
Academy of Management 2021, #AOM2021. I was a discussant at a symposium entitled, Synergizing Corporate Activism Research: Building a Shared Understanding of an Evolving Phenomenon (session 913) This post is mostly for my future reference but readers may also find parts interesting. I welcome contact from those attending #AOM2021 who are interested in collaborating with investors. […]
SHARE Summit 2021 was a virtual event this year. I missed the sidebar conversations so important at most conferences. Additionally, since I was home and had plenty of work to do, I attended fewer sessions than I would have in Vancouver. Still, even when virtual, this annual conference is among the best. I cannot think […]
#MICUS 2020, the Morningstar conference, had so much to write about during day 1 that it may take me a month or so to go through it. Register for day 2 if you missed the first day. I just heard Larry Fink, of BlackRock. For someone heading the largest pile of investment money in the […]
Investing in employee ownership could be a smart strategy for individual investors and would certainly be good for society. As I mentioned recently, I was delighted to see investing in employee ownership as a major topic of discussion at the recent SHARE Summit 2020 in Vancouver. At that conference, Ted Howard outlined principles for a […]
SHARE Summit 2020 was a first for me. I had never attended a conference put on by Canada’s Shareholder Association for Research and Education. I encourage Americans to learn from our northern neighbors. Next year’s Summit will be in Toronto, so may be more accsssible to most readers than this year’s in Vancouver. (more…)
YourStake.org had one of the most crowded booths at the #SRI30 Conference last November. Maybe it was the cardboard box draped with an old Halloween costume around a computer and printer that drew people in. Maybe it was product. The center of attention looked a like a homemade video arcade to me. Every time I walked […]
Professional Athletes at #SRI30 were touted as the “next wave of impact.” I was delighted to learn from a panel of retired professional athletes about their second careers… giving back to the community. I am not a big sports fan but most Americans are. This panel presented a great opportunity for many the SRI community […]
The 2019 Moskowitz Prize Winners were named at the annual SRI Conference last week. The prestigious prize is the only global award recognizing outstanding quantitative research in sustainable and responsible investing. Since its launch in 1996 by Berkeley Haas and US SIF, its winners have explored shareholder activism, socially responsible mutual funds, and social responsible investing as a catalyst […]
Joe Keefe, President and CEO of Pax World Funds, gave the following speech on November 14 on the occasion of the SRI Conference 30th anniversary. I reproduce the speech here for those who could not make it to this important event and because I believe Joe Keefe captured the essence of #SRI30. Note that Pax […]
Ron Orol of The Deal interviewed me (James McRitchie) last month. Here are some of the topics we covered and a few afterthoughts. (more…)
Listing 2019 Public Funds Forum takeaways is not easy. First, the Forum is held under Chatham House Rule, so no direct quotes. Second, I was networking and collaborating on various projects, so was not there for every panel or speaker. Third, my 2019 public funds forum takeaways focus only on what was new to me, […]
2019 CalPERS CalSTRS Diversity Forum lived up to its billing as a unique opportunity to engage with industry leaders and experts on diversity and inclusion topics such as: The “Why” and “How” of driving diversity and inclusion Building and sustaining a positive corporate culture Human Capital Management metrics and their value to investors In the following […]
Training for Sustainable Investing was a topic at the most recent Morningstar Conference in Chicago. (#MICUS) I would like to learn more the education of investment advisors in #ESG, #SRI, #corpgov issues. Interest in sustainable investing was high at the conference due to fund flows and client inquiries. However, I only saw a couple of […]
“One Share, One Vote? A Debate on Dual Class Share Structures” was the title of this year’s Morrison & Foerster Lecture in honor of Marshall L. Small, held at Stanford Law on May 20, 2019. The side favoring a ban, or at least sunset provisions, on dual class shares was slightly more convincing in their arguments. […]
Sustainability at Morningstar (Morningstar Investment Conference #MICUS) in Chicago was an important topic, growing in popularity. As posted, their research found “72% of the United States population expressed at least a moderate interest in sustainable investing.” Nice to know many value a habitable planet as well as profits. However, research from Morningstar also finds we […]
MICUS 2019 was my first Morningstar investment conference. It was HUGE, with lots interesting exhibits, speakers and attendees. I had a chance to chat with Ray Sin who, along with Ryan Murphy and Samantha Lamas, authored The True Faces of Sustainable Investing: Busting Industry Myths Around ESG. Additionally, I got a chance to play a […]
Governance Fundamentals: Understanding Your Company’s Mechanics and Benchmarking. That was the title of the final spring 2019 SVDX/Rock Center program at Stanford Law on April 18. My cryptic notes below. (more…)
CSR 5.0. I must have missed 2.0 through 4.9… focused on corporate governance and ESG. This was my first Skytop Strategies conference (agenda) or one specifically on the topic of CSR. It was billed as presenting “the evolution of corporate social responsibility from its initial shared value paradigm to its current form. The program will […]
What follows are quick takes, with many incomplete sentences, from the recent Directors Forum 2019 held in San Diego. These are highlights from the notes of one participant, from my perspective as a shareholder advocate. If you attended, I am sure you have different takeaways. Please share them as comments. Like all Directors Forums, this one […]
Judicial Independence: Conflicts of Interest was the primary focus of last week’s first Rock Center / SVDX program of the academic year. It was titled Condos on Lanai, Private Planes, and Electric Cars: Judicial Views of Purported Conflicts Among Silicon Valley Director. (more…)
Facets of Risk – my abbreviation for The Many Facets of Risk: Threats Posed by Internal Cultural Issues – the topic of a panel at the Corporate Directors Forum I attended in San Diego in January. This will be the last of my reports from that Forum. Like all Corporate Directors Forums, Facets of Risk operated under the Chatham […]
A new measuring effectiveness roadmap helps investors ensure they are moving beyond generating environmental or social impact through individual market transactions and are better aligning with broader system-level goals (e.g., the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs). Group action along the same trajectory can better influence system-level change. The measuring effectiveness roadmap helps investors answer […]
Transforming Capital Markets; that will be my abbreviation for Transformation of Our Capital Markets. the topic of a panel at the Corporate Directors Forum I attended in San Diego in January. Yes, I’m still digesting all the great conversations. Like all Corporate Directors Forums, this one operated under the Chatham House Rule, so you will not find any direct […]
Culture: A Driving Force in Talent Management was the topic of a panel at the Corporate Directors Forums I attended in San Diego in January. Yes, I’m still digesting all the great conversations. Like all Corporate Directors Forums, this one operated under the Chatham House Rule, so you will not find any direct quotes below. These are […]
Cultural Risks: As Advertised Cultural risks were the topic of a recent Rock Center / SVDX event. The spotlight often shines on cultural risks only after an organizational crisis or incident. But forward-looking leaders are shifting to a proactive approach to cultural risk management. Macro business issues—cost and regulatory pressures, digital disruption, cyber threats, talent shortages, […]
Compensation: The Difference it Makes Compensation. Most Americans think CEOs of the 500 largest publicly traded corporations are overpaid, even though they think CEOs made less than a tenth of what they actually earn. The Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University conducted a nationwide survey of 1,202 individuals — representative by gender, race, […]
The Culture Impact: Values, Attitudes & Strategic Directions Culture impact in corporate governance got a big boost with NACD Blue Ribbon Commission report Culture as a Corporate Asset. A brave panel tackled the topic, The Culture Impact: Values, Attitudes & Strategic Directions, at the Corporate Directors Forums I attended in San Diego. Like all Corporate Directors Forums, this […]
Shareholder Hot Topics: Introductory Notes Most of the Corporate Directors Forums I have attended in San Diego start with “Shareholder Hot Topics.” There is widespread interest in the subject from directors, management, shareholders, consultants and academics. This year the Forum had an overall theme, “How Culture Impacts the Boardroom and Beyond.” Corporate culture is the […]
Robotics and AI: How will Boards Embrace Tomorrow’s Technologies? As advertized: AI and Robotics are coming. There is no question that disruptive technologies are going to dominate not only what is introduced into the marketplace but also how our businesses are operated internally. Two evolving, and already disruptive forces, are robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). […]
US stock exchanges should require sunset provisions for dual-class shares, SEC commissioner Rob Jackson said in his first speech since taking office last month. In the speech at UC Berkeley School of Law, he likened dual-class shares that do not sunset to “corporate royalty” and said such structures were “antithetical to our values as Americans.” […]
Mutualism, the subjects of Kara Stein’s recent talk at Stanford Law, has been a subject that has fascinated me since the 1980’s when I was awarded an NIMH Fellowship to study what types of corporate governance structures (including mutualism) might be most beneficial to employees, shareholders, and society. I applied many lessons learned in heading […]