Apple 2023 annual meeting is March 10, 2023, at 9:00 A.M. Pacific Time. To attend, vote, and submit questions during the Annual Meeting, visit here. You will need your voter control number. Of course, I recommend voting in advance. To enhance corporate governance and long-term value, vote Against Gore, Jung, Levinson, Auditor, Exec Pay, and […]
The following guest post originally appeared as a 2019 supplement to The Shareholder Service Optimizer. See Publishers Note at the bottom of this post for more details on how it was changed and how it is relevant to both issuers and employee shareholders. (more…)
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 […]
Gary Gensler, a former financial regulator, and Goldman Sachs banker, now at MIT, is rumored Biden’s choice to head the SEC. As head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), he helped uncover interest-rate rigging on Libor, which underpins $300T in loans. Banks had to cough up $9B in fines. He pushed for transparency around derivative trading and […]
WD-40 2020, where employee voice and empowerment is on the ballot. The WD-40 2020 annual meeting is Tuesday, December 8th. To enhance long-term value, vote AGAINST the auditor and FOR all other items, including #4. $WDFC (more…)
Trump celebrates labor day. Many who actually labor cringe at his repulsive words and actions. There are far instances too many to mention. Below are a few that are top of mind. (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 […]
When investing for gender-diversity for other ESG, check fund voting records. With the SEC’s cryptic proxy vote disclosure system, that is difficult (draft Petition for Real-Time Disclosure of Proxy Votes), so ask your investment advisor and hope they subscribe to Morningstar Direct. As evidenced by a recent Morningstar report, State Street’s Fearless Girl appears timid about […]
Final comment letter to the SEC on Shareholder Proposals, re File Number 4-725, including 11 recommendations highlighted on bold. Thanks to several readers for their excellent suggestions for improvement. See prior post: SEC Proxy Process Video 11-15-2018 (more…)
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 […]
Engagement is, or should be, the common theme of our three videos. CalPERS argues it gives them a seat at the table. Professor Damodaran extols the importance of engagement as a possibility. As a shareholder, what avenues are open? In Davos, I think they looked through the wrong lens. Instead of engagement, they focused on an […]
This is the second in a multi-part series on the 25th annual SRI Conference on Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing held November 9–11, 2014 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. See also Video Friday: What is Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing?, Violating Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Increases Industry Risks, Surveys: Nonprofit Board Members & SRI 2014 Conference Attendees, Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing: Part 1. The Agenda […]
I joined for what was billed as a ‘fireside chat’ style presentation featuring Anne Simpson of CalPERS, Ralph Whitworth of Relational Investors, LLC, and Katherine Rabin of Glass, Lewis & Co., who will address the hot topics of this year’s proxy season. “Bring your burning questions and get the opinions of these experts.” (more…)
The following guest post comes from Usman Hayat, was published by the CFA Institute on 13 February 2013, and is republished here with permission. Why, how, and to what effect do faith-based investors engage with companies to seek positive social and environmental change? A recent report, “Believers in the Boardroom: Religious Organizations and Their Shareholder Engagement Practices” […]
Elroy Dimson, Oguzhan Karakas, and Xi Li analyze an extensive proprietary database of corporate social responsibility engagements with US public companies over 1999–2009. Engagements address environmental, social, and governance concerns. They are followed by a one-year abnormal return that averages 1.8%, comprising 4.4% for successful and zero for unsuccessful engagements. (more…)
Writing for Inside Investor Relations, Elizabeth Judd‘s article, The Perfect Shareholder Base, demonstrates a more sophisticated approach. Still, I think directors will find Douglas Y. Park’s advice, Shareholder Activism: A Thoughtful Approach for Effective Engagement a better approach. (more…)
Board/Shareholder engagement is a topic receiving increased attention in the US. Many governance organizations and experts have been discussing this topic in an attempt to highlight the issues and challenges that have been expressed by the various constituencies including the directors, institutional shareholders (both US and global), activist shareholders, corporate management, regulators, (more…)
The first comprehensive analysis of the engagement between investors and public U.S. corporate issuers finds a notably high and increasing trend of engagement. Yet, there is a disconnect between investors and issuers in basic areas such as the time frame of engagement, the definition of a successful engagement and, by implication, what engagement itself means. “The State of Engagement […]