Tag Archives | investors

GS Ascertain Client Voting Preferences

GS Ascertain Client Voting Preferences

GS Ascertain Client Voting Preferences is a shareholder proposal filed by James McRitchie at Goldman Sachs (GS). We want Goldman Sachs to advance democratic corporate governance, to be aware of and report on the reputational and financial risks it faces over a misalignment between the proxy votes it casts and its client’s values and preferences. […]

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Professor Gensler: Unsolicited Advice

Professor Gensler: Unsolicited Advice

Professor Gensler Congratulations. When confirmed to chair the SEC, you can take a major role in reconstructing our financial and economic systems. Below, I offer the unsolicited advice of a real “Main Street” investor. Central to a recovery that helps America address its many issues (institutional racism, inequality, climate change, anomie, etc.) is a system […]

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Normalized Deception

Normalized Deception: Spectrem Group

Normalized deception in the world of politics has spread to proxy voting controversies. A recent white(wash) paper by the Spectrem Group purports to be “providing a voice to retail investors on the proxy advisory industry” by employing a ham-handed survey, which seeks to “educate” respondents through leading questions. The report’s catchy title is Exile of […]

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Influence Map to Disclose Climate Lobbying

Investors to Oil: Disclose Climate Lobbying

Disclose Climate Lobbying: Resolutions Filed at Oil and Gas Companies Encouraged by the forward‐looking actions addressing climate change at the Paris Climate Conference (COP21) in December, investors have filed shareholder resolutions at 11 oil and gas companies asking them to disclose climate lobbying activities. The resolutions urge the companies to fully disclose their lobbying activities and […]

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ESG Issues IRRCi

Most Investment Professionals Consider ESG Issues

Almost three-quarters of investment professionals worldwide (73 percent) take environmental, social, and corporate governance — ESG issues into consideration in the investment process, according to the CFA Institute ESG Survey, a new survey of CFA Institute members created by CFA Institute and the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRC Institute). In addition, 64 percent of survey […]

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Lessons on Proxy Voting From 2014 Mini-Season

ProxyPulse, a partnership of Broadridge Financial Solutions and PwC’s Center for Board Governance, released its first report of 2015, based on results from the 2014 fall mini-season that analyzed beneficial shareholder data from 1,077 U.S. public company shareholder meetings. There are lessons here for both issuing companies and shareholders. (more…)

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the engagement pyramid

Video Friday: Triple Feature on Shareholder Engagement

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 […]

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Deal Professor Envisions Corporate Gadfly

Deal Professor Equates Filing Proxy Proposals with Terrorism

Most people don’t like their behavior criticized. CEOs and boards almost always fight my proxy proposals aimed at improving corporate governance. I wasn’t happy with the Deal Professor’s criticisms of my shareowner activism in his August 19th NYTimes article, Grappling With the Cost of Corporate Gadflies. He also criticizes John Chevedden and William Steiner. I stewed for days […]

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Guest Post: Relieve the Pain of Voting Season

Mike Tyrrell is Editor of SRI-Connect – an online research marketplace for professional institutional investors, analysts & companies interested in sustainable development.  He is keen to open up the site to corporate governance analysts & corporate governance research. I’ve heard so many complaints over the years about the work overload that occurs in ‘voting season’ and […]

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Trading on Emotions

Investors’ previous experiences with a stock affect their willingness to repurchase the stock. Using detailed trades data from two brokers, Michal Strahilevitz, Terrance Odean, and Brad M. Barber document that investors are reluctant to repurchase stocks previously sold for a loss and to repurchase stocks that have risen in price subsequent to a prior sale. They […]

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Investors Fear Their Advisers

A new poll shows that nearly 60% of 4,000 investors who responded to a recent poll said getting scammed is their top fear when dealing with investment advisers. (Why investors fear their advisers – Investment News, 11/11/2010) Is it any wonder? Daniel Sparks, the former head of Goldman’s mortgage department, freely admitted in Senate testimony […]

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