Kenneth Steiner provides a review of his stockholder activism in 2019…. accomplishments so far this year and a preview of his 2020 proxy season. This follows Bill Steiner – Legacy Continues. (more…)
Tag Archives | Bank of America
Gender Pay Scorecard for Equal Pay Day
A Gender Pay Scorecard released by Arjuna Capital f0r Equal Pay Day finds only Citigroup earning an “A” grade, while 23 of 46 large companies evaluated got failing grades of “F.” (more…)
Citi to Address Gender Pay Gap
Citi reached an historic agreement to disclose wage data and adjust employee salaries in a company-wide effort to achieve gender pay equity. Arjuna Capital agreed to withdraw its gender pay shareholder resolution after the agreement. Citigroup (Citi) and Arjuna Capital disclosed that Citi is taking steps to provide gender and ethnicity wage data and commit to […]
Harrington Wins Proxy Access at Bank of America
Bank of America (BAC) shareholders can now look forward to nominating candidates to the Board of Directors in a deal negotiated by John Harrington, CEO of Harrington Investments, Inc., (HII) a socially responsible investment advisory firm based in Napa. The Bank adopted new “proxy access” bylaws reflecting changes driven by Harrington’s shareholder resolution. (more…)
Video Friday: Are You "Overboarded"?
TK Kerstetter, Chairman, NYSE Governance Services – Corporate Board Member interviews Scott Cutler, EVP, of NYSE Euronext. (more…)
Proxy Access at Bank of America May 8th
Re opposition to John Harrington’s proxy access proposal at Bank of America ($BAC), based on language that I helped develop. For background, see Bank of America (BAC) Faces Proxy Access on May 8th. I hope opponents will reconsider. From one analysis recommending a vote against: While this amount ($660 million) is significant in absolute terms, shareholders may have […]
Proxy Access Proposals Move Forward
On March 26, 2012, SEC staff issued their decision on a request by iRobot (IRBT) to exclude my proxy access proposal from their proxy. Although similar proposals had survived no-action requests last year, IRB management held out hopes that small changes made in the proposal might have made the proposal “vague” under rule 14a-8(1)(3) or “ordinary […]
Agency Capitalism: Corrective Measures (Part 2)
This is Part 2 of a post which started out reviewing the important thesis outlined in The Agency Costs of Agency Capitalism: Activist Investors and the Revaluation of Governance Rights by Ronald J. Gilson and Jeffrey N. Gordon (January 1, 2013). See Agency Capitalism: Corrective Measures Part 1 and Part 3. Current law encourages mindless indexing of portfolios and voting like lemmings […]
Ground-Breaking Proxy Proposals Headed to Shareowner Vote
Climate Change Portfolio Exposure Boston Common Asset Management has a proposal that will appear on the proxy of PNC Financial Services ($PNC) requesting that it report to shareowners on the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from its lending portfolio and its exposure to climate change risk in its lending, investing, and financing activities. Watch for your proxy. The […]
Bank of America (BAC): What Would We Do As Owners?
Bank of America executives, investors, and opponents alike reacted with surprise to yesterday’s news—posted for two hours on Dow Jones Newswire and elsewhere—that the mammoth financial institution, realizing it was heading for a taxpayer bailout, was asking Americans to start thinking about what they’ll do with the bank once they own it, and to start […]
Companies Use Range of Arguments to Exclude Proxy Access Proposals
Of the 16 proxy access proposals filed by proponents in 2012 and listed on the ISS Checklist, eight are being challenged at the SEC. Ferro, Hewlett-Packard, Nabors Industries, CME Group, Pioneer Natural Resources, Staples and Charles Schwab have not sought no-action relief from proposals at the commission, according to data from ISS. Conversely, Bank of […]
Governance is More than Skin Deep!
In a recent Forbes article entitled Warren Buffett, And His Board, May be Too Old to Run Berkshire Hathaway, Francine McKenna makes the case for both greater vigilance by Berkshire investors (including the author) and a different concept of corporate governance. Ms. McKenna may well be right as to her ultimate conclusion, although Berkshire’s performance […]