Shareholders v Stakeholders is in the news again, driven by the Business Roundtable. Someone asked Quora: Regarding corporate social responsibility, do you agree more with the shareholder view or the stakeholder view theory? Below is my response with a few edits, after some additional thought. (more…)
McRitchie 2019 proxy season results are not something I normally report. It feels too much like bragging. I do my work to drive better, more accountable corporate governance. However, the SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance is “considering recommending that the Commission propose rule amendments regarding the thresholds for shareholder proposals under Rule 14a-8.” It is […]
Real Main Street Investors are NOT the members of a Coalition formed by the National Association of Manufacturers to buttress arguments made by the Business Roundtable and United States Chamber of Commerce. (see Main Street Investors: Battle Coming) In fact, real Main Street investors are an endangered species that may actually go away if the Coalition gets […]
Dark money risk is highlighted in recent fine. State Farm agreed to a $250 million settlement last week for $4 million in contributions it allegedly steered through conduits to Illinois State Supreme Court candidate Lloyd Karmeier. Where is the outrage over dark money? Said Bruce Freed, president of the Center for Political Accountability (CPA). This case […]
The Northern Trust Corporation (NTRS) is moving toward more democratic governance, thanks to a proxy access proposal submitted on my behalf by John Chevedden in November. Since I own no where near 1% of NTRS (market cap $23B), we would have been denied the right to file the proposal if the Chamber of Commerce, Business […]
The Board at Berry Global Group ($BERY) is moving toward more democratic governance, thanks to the efforts of a retail shareholder who would be denied the right to file proposals if the Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and others had their way. The Berry Global Group has adopted proposals submitted by the same small retail […]
Investor Response to Chamber: Letter Representatives of hundreds of investors with trillions of dollars in assets delivered a letter to the SEC on November 9, 2017, An Investor response to U.S. Chamber’s Proposal to Revise SEC Rule 14a-8 (report). We noted with interest the November 1, 2017, guidance contained in Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14I. […]
A shareholder society appears to have no place in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC) severely flawed paper on shareholder proposal reform. The paper is intended to contain a “set of recommendations for the SEC on fixing the broken Rule 14a-8 system in order to protect investors and make the public company […]
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC) released a paper on shareholder proposal reform, which contains a “set of recommendations for the SEC on fixing the broken Rule 14a-8 system in order to protect investors and make the public company model more attractive.” See also the Chamber’s press release, U.S. Chamber Offers Recommendations to […]
The “Proxy Access Battlefront” has shifted once again, as reported by Ning Chiu of Davis Polk (The Proxy Access Battlefront for Next Season? SEC Staff Rejects Attempt to Exclude Proxy Access Shareholder Proposal). Chiu’s post captures the trajectory of proxy access amendment efforts. (more…)
Have you heard the news? Broadridge amends proxy access bylaws on July 6, 2017, to do the following: Increase the number of stockholders that can aggregate their shares to make a proxy access Board nomination from 20 to 50 stockholders, Eliminate a requirement to count individual funds within a mutual fund family as separate shareholders […]
Lobbying disclosure is sought by shareholder resolutions filed at 50 companies by 66 institutional and individual investors. Corporate lobbying disclosure remains a top shareholder proposal topic for 2016. At least 66 investors have filed proposals at 50 companies asking for lobbying reports that include federal and state lobbying payments, payments to trade associations used for […]
In case you haven’t tuned in lately, Nell Minow and the crew at ValueEdge Advisors continue to crank out some interesting posts. Yesterday a brief comment on the SEC Chair on Board Diversity and a few days ago Koch Brothers’-backed ALEC wants dark money image makeover. Frequently, they are posting more extensive original material, such as Phil Gramm’s Views on […]
A proposal by Qube Investment Management, which owns 10,208 shares of Microsoft ($MSFT), to cap pay has been challenged through the “no-action” process. See incoming correspondence to the SEC. The resolved clause of Qube’s proposal reads as follows: Resolved: The the Board of Directors and/or the Compensation Committee limit the average individual total compensation of […]
The U.S. Chamber Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC) will hold a half-day event on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 in Washington DC to take an in-depth look at the influence of proxy advisors and the state of corporate governance in the U.S. It would be nice to get some shareowners out to at least listen and report back to […]
These are some relatively quick notes that I’m sharing from the Corporate Directors Forum 2012, held on the beautiful campus of the University of San Diego, January 22-24, 2012. This post may be a cryptic… not complete sentences bt hopefully mor intelligible thN txt msgN. (more…)
The SEC submitted its initial brief in the case of Business Roundtable and Chamber Of Commerce v. Securities And Exchange Commission. The litigation was commenced by the Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce to challenge the validity of the proxy access rules adopted by the SEC in August 2010. (SEC Submits Brief Supporting Validity […]
In the wake of the SEC’s approval of management proxy access for three percent shareholders, it’s quite surprising to note the vehemence of the remaining opposition to such action. For example, the Wall Street Journal in its lead editorial on August 30, 2010 entitled Alinsky Wins at the SEC, which in itself makes clear the extent […]
Mutual Funds: Pass Through Voting? Various studies have shown that mutual funds often place their own interest in asset gathering ahead of their fiduciary duties. After studying proxy voting by US funds, Jennifer S. Taub (of UMass) concludes one option might be to “borrow from British reforms by creating a uniform set of best practices […]
The Chamber of Commerce opposes the SEC’s proposals on proxy access, claiming that such decisions reside within individual states. “No compelling reason exists to overturn the long-standing state law role in controlling the substantive rules regarding director election,” wrote the Chamber’s Richard Murray in a letter to Schapiro. “Pursuit of a federal right to access […]
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations. More than 96% of U.S. Chamber members are small businesses with 100 employees or fewer. Today, they are challenging the SEC’s power to grant […]