Challenging Boardroom Homogeneity: Strategies for Increasing Board Diversity – A Conversation with Aaron Dhir and Deborah Rhode. Sponsored by the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession, the Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford Women on Boards, and the Vision 2020 Project. Tuesday, May 26, 2015 5:00 – 5:30pm Reception 5:30 – 6:30pm Presentation Stanford Law School, Room 190 (more…)
Tractor Supply Company (TSCO) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. They offer a comprehensive selection of merchandise, which include equine, livestock, pet and small animal products; hardware, truck, towing and tool products; seasonal products, including lawn and garden items, power equipment, gifts and toys; maintenance products for agricultural and rural use, and work/recreational clothing and […]
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli and Trillium Asset Management today announced that they have withdrawn the shareholder proposal they filed at eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) after the company agreed to revise its Governance Guidelines to include gender and racial diversity among the qualities its seeks in its board members. Several other issues remain on the […]
Disclaimer: I’m sharing a few notes from Directors Forum 2015 held at San Diego University beginning 2/25/2015 and ending 2/27/2015. The Forum was held under the Chatham House Rule, so you won’t read any juicy tidbits here. However, I do hope to give readers some flavor of the topics discussed and a little on the general […]
Corporate boards are entrusted to make sound and informed business decisions on behalf of shareholders and to take their best interest into consideration. Decisions made at the board level are of strategic significance that may perhaps completely transform the future path of corporations. Examples of major strategic decisions include mergers and acquisitions, entering new markets, […]
The rewards of corporate leadership accrue faster for men. Not only do women hold just one in nine of the executive and board positions in California’s top 400 public companies, an annual University of California, Davis, study shows that that the women in top executive roles are not being promoted to the highest levels, and […]
Guidewire Software Inc ($GWRE), which provides software products for property and casualty insurers, is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 12/4/2014. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of two funds when I checked and voted on 12/1/2014. Sorry for the late post. Tomorrow is the last day to vote online. I voted […]
This is first time I’ve attended a Council of Institutional Investors (CII) semi-annual conference. My report from first day events can be found at CII Fall 2014 Conference: Part 1. See also, Part 2 and Part 3. There are no fact checkers or even grammar editors here at corpgov.net, so read with that warning. I’ll try to […]
We last explored the topic of gender diversity on boards, in particular the underrepresentation of women on them, late in 2012, but much has happened globally on the subject since then. More companies have adopted regulation on the issue that range from “comply-or-explain” rules to quotas for the percentage of women on boards. A 2014 Grant Thornton […]
Premiere Global Services, $PGI, is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is June 17, 2014. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of three funds when I checked and voted on 6/11/2014. I voted with the board’s recommendations 40% of the time, thus assigned a proxy score of 40. View Proxy Statement. Read Warnings below. What follows are my recommendations […]
American Express Company $AXP is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is on 5/12/2014. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of three funds when I checked and voted on 5/4/2014. I voted with management 47% of the time. View AXP’s Proxy Statement, which is user friendly. My recommendations on how to vote the AXP proxy follows. Warning: […]
The March/April edition of The Corporate Board contains several excellent articles. I e-mailed a couple of quotes from their ‘Spoken & Written’ section to a CEO who needs a real board, instead of a rubber stamp. (more…)
“Investing In Women – Increasing Opportunities For Funding Women” Presented by WITI (Women In Technology International) and NanoTecNexus. Presented at WITI San Diego Network meeting. (more…)
The march of women into the upper echelon seems inevitable. A few points from the introduction: 60% of recent university graduates have been women, 50% of those graduating with advanced degrees in law and medicine, 1/3 of those with MBAs. There will be labor and skill shortages in all developed countries over the next two […]
Don’t miss the following great reads: Eleanor Bloxham, CEO of The Value Alliance Activist shareholders’ top priorities for 2014. A must read for directors and shareowners alike. Here’s the first paragraph. Many of us free ride on actions taken by active, long-term shareholders. These unsung heroes goad managers and boards to reach better decisions, make available […]
The International Corporate Governance Network sent comments to the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). I think they warrant widespread reading and adoption. What follows are highlights from the OSC letter. Gender diversity is a competitiveness issue for a company as a whole and a critical dimension of governance, both in […]
Mainstream microeconomics has emphasized the search for perfectly competitive markets within a framework of equilibria in a quest to maximize economic efficiency. Tisdell argues that intense competition can reduce economic performance. He concentrates on market adjustments and the evolution of economic systems where the role of diversity, product niches, cooperation between firms and comparisons with […]
After finding some “off-beat” proposals made at Fortune 250 firms and posted to ProxyMonitor.org, Laura J. Finn thinks the following might be Five Coming Trends in Shareholder Proposals (Corporate Board Member, July 11, 2013). I provide a brief evaluation of each and add a couple of my own. (more…)
Time to Move Down the Food Chain With Proxy Proposals How does director voting look so far this year? Eighty percent of directors up for election received over 90% shareholder support. And nine of ten received at least 80% support. Directors of large-cap companies had the highest rate of support, averaging 95% approval. Small cap and […]
Facebook Inc ($FB) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/11/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected no votes when I checked on 6/5/2013. I voted with management 9% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Senator Warren recently called on the exchanges to block companies with unequal voting structures from listing. Too bad that didn’t happen years […]
The Home Depot, Inc. (HD) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 5/23/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of three funds when I checked on 5/16/2013. I voted with management 81% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank are voted in […]
PLANSPONSOR.com reports, a provision in President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget that pertains to employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) could result in a disincentive for offering the plans. The provision would eliminate Internal Revenue Code section 404(k), an incentive for ESOP creation and operation that permits a C corporation to deduct the value of dividends paid […]
Introduction by Professor Ronald J. Gilson, the Meyers Professor of Law and Business, Stanford Law School; Commentary of Lecture by Professor David F. Larcker, the James Irvin Miller Professor of Accounting, Stanford Graduate School of Business. The corporation is one of the most important and remarkable institutions in the world. It affects all our lives […]
Abstract: How does gender-balance affect the working of boards of directors? I examine boards that have been required for two decades to be relatively gender-balanced: boards of business companies in which the Israeli government holds a substantial equity interest. I construct a novel database based on the detailed minutes of 402 board- and board-committee meetings […]
The 400 largest companies headquartered in California, representing almost $3 trillion in shareholder value, still resemble a “boys’ club” with women filling fewer than 10 percent of top executive jobs, a University of California, Davis, study has found. Incremental gains have been pitiful, in my opinion. The Graduate School of Management’s eighth annual UC Davis Study of California Women […]
Watch the Bloomberg Businessweek discussion and get an update on the EU debate on female representation in boardrooms. Interview of experts also includes insights on women added value in (more…)
Since the Cadbury Report was published in 1992 in the UK, there has been increasing emphasis not just by UK regulators but also by regulators from other countries, including the USA and Continental Europe, of the role of boards of directors in corporate governance. However, 20 years down the line it is still uncertain whether […]
Sociologists Richard Zweigenhaft and G. William Domhoff began studying ascendance to the top corporate office 20 years ago and, while the population of CEOs is far from diverse, they report that they have been surprised to see as many women and minorities as they have. Today there are 80 white women, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans […]
GMI Ratings released today its third study this year of gender diversity on corporate boards of directors. The current study provides a comprehensive quantitative state-by-state analysis of gender diversity on the boards of Russell 3000 companies headquartered in the 50 U.S. states. (more…)
It has been months, maybe years, since we’ve slipped into the “wayback machine.” Here we go. Let’s have some fun. (more…)
Equilar anchor Bonnie Day compares male and female compensation at the top, with key findings from the 2012 S&P 500 CEO (more…)
Did I hear “goddess of best practice in the boardroom”? Marcus’ keeps getting better and better. In this brief interview, she (more…)
The Changing Profile of Board Recruitment, in the November/December issue of The Corporate Board by Bonnie W Gwin of Heidrick & Struggles, discusses a continued risk aversion among the leadership of the Fortune 500. Companies seeking to fill directors’ chairs with only current or former CEOs will find it nearly impossible to increase diversity on […]
The December 2011 issue of NACD Directorship magazine contains my article on “The Case for Proxy Access” beginning on page 40. Also of special interest to (more…)
Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), one of Europe’s largest institutional asset managers and a major global investor managing £362 billion in assets for more than 3,000 clients, is trying to persuade headhunters to widen the pool of company directors by bringing in people without direct board experience. “It’s not just about gender,” says Sacha Sadan, […]