Kenneth Steiner 2022 provides an update on his accomplishments of the last two years and a list of shareholder proposals for the upcoming 2022 annual meeting season. Since I last posted on CorpGov.net two years ago there have been enormous gains in shareholder rights and positive results from companies at which I have submitted stockholder […]
JPMorgan 2020 annual meeting is 5/19/2020 at 7AM Pacific virtually. Presumably we will be able to vote by entering our 16-digit control number found on the proxy card. To enhance long-term value: Vote AGAINST Burke, Pay, Auditor, #8. Vote FOR other directors, other shareholder proposals. See list of all virtual-only meetings maintained by ISS. (more…)
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…)
Bill Steiner Had Huge Impact Bill Steiner would have seen the 2020 proxy season as a busy and exciting one for individual shareholder activists. While the SEC considers changes (your comments can still have impact, even if submitted late) to reduce the influence of shareholders, so called “gadflies” continue to demonstrate leadership, effectiveness and ability […]
Gadfly importance to democratic corporate governance is often underrated. We are currently under attack by the Business Roundtable (BRT) and others seeking to substantially raise the ownership threshold for submitting and resubmitting proposals. BRT, for example, contends proposals from small shareholder divert “significant time and resources to issues that, at best, have an attenuated connection to the […]
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 […]
SEC Proxy Process Video: November 15, 2018 In the interest of documenting important events in corporate governance, I am here bookmarking the SEC Proxy Process Video from November 15, 2018, for future reference. Read transcript by downloading the following pdf: SEC TranscriptShareholderProposalsRoundtable. (full day) SEC Proxy Process Video (Click to View) (more…)
The November 15 SEC Roundtable on the Proxy Process will include me on the SEC Shareholder Proposal Panel. Public announcement with instructions for submitting comments. I will only have a few minutes at the Roundtable. What should I emphasize? Where should I stay in DC? Take Action: Readers of CorpGov.net know far more than I do. Please email your suggestions […]
Shareholder Collaboration is a new ECGI working paper by Jill Fisch and Simone M. Sepe. Fisch is one of my favorite researchers, being insightful and less predictable than many of those in the primary academic hubs of corporate governance (Harvard, Stanford, and Delaware). In Shareholder Collaboration, the authors discuss the growing importance of a collaborative […]
William Steiner recently became the most experienced shareholder activist alive to win majority votes for shareholder proposals at public companies. A few months ago, he celebrated 40 years of shareholder activism with an overwhelming victory at Haemonetics Corporation (HAE). The following is based on an interview with Mr. Steiner by his son, Kenneth Steiner, who […]
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM, $IBM) provides information technology (IT) products and services worldwide. It is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on April 26, 2016. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of four funds when I checked. I voted AGAINST the pay plan, and most of the directors. I voted FOR the report […]
I don’t own ExxonMobil $XOM stock or the stock of any other oil companies, so won’t be examining their proxy when it comes out or making voting recommendations. However, oil companies do remain a potent economic force and won’t be going away anytime soon… even though folks like me hope to be driving around in electric […]
Who Withdraws Shareholder Proposals and Does It Matter? An Analysis of Sponsor Identity and Pay Practices is the title of an import study in the November 2015 issue of Corporate Governance: An International Review. Examination of this topic is long overdue. Companies constantly take full credit for corporate governance reforms, such as the addition of proxy […]
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (BRCD), which provides storage area networking (SAN) and Internet protocol networking solutions, is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/7/2015. ProxyDemocracy.org had the votes of two funds when I checked and voted on 4/2/2015. I voted with management 43% of the time and assigned Brocade Communications a […]
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: […]
International Business Machines Corp. $IBM, is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/29/2014. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of four funds when I checked and voted on 4/22/2014. I voted with management 75% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank […]
Johnson & Johnson $JNJ is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/24/2014. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of two funds when I checked and voted on 4/18/2014. I voted with management 67% of the time. View Proxy Statement, which is user friendly. (more…)
Citigroup Inc $C, is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/22/2014. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of no funds when I checked and voted on 4/15/2014. I voted with management 33% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Why an index with no links? That seems so basic. Perhaps Citi doesn’t want to make reading […]
H&R Block, Inc. $HRB is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 9/12/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of two funds when I checked on 9/6/2013 and again on 9/9/2013. I voted with management 53% of the time. View Proxy Statement. (more…)
TK Kerstetter, Chairman, NYSE Governance Services – Corporate Board Member interviews Scott Cutler, EVP, of NYSE Euronext. (more…)
Microsoft ($MSFT) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 11/28/2012. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of six funds when I voted on 11/16/2012. (The Table below doesn’t include the votes of Trillium.) I voted with management 92% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the […]
Cisco ($CSCO) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 11/15/2012. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of five funds when I voted on 11/8/2012. I voted with management 83% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank will be […]
The influential proxy analyst, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), recommends voting against Kenneth Steiner’s proxy access proposal at H&R Block (HRB) on 9/13 because it “could undermine the efforts of larger, long-term shareholders whose interests might better reflect those of the broader shareholder base.” Their logic appears flawed. Larger, longer-term shareowners would gain rights, not lose them, […]
H&R Block ($HRB) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 9/13/2012. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of two funds when I voted on 9/5/2012. I voted with management 40% of the time but in complete alignment with CalSTRS. I generally vote against pay packages where NEOs were paid above median in […]
Ferro (FOE) is not one of the stocks in my portfolio but I did help in reviewing companies I thought were good candidates for a proxy access proposal and I did help design the proposal submitted to FOE, so I’m offering my voting advice. (more…)
The SEC granted Textron (TXT) no-action relief on March 7, allowing them to drop Ken Steiner’s proxy access proposal based on their decision that paragraphs 1-5 and 7 of the USPX proxy access template deal with (more…)
The first USPX type proxy access proposal was submitted by Kenneth Steiner (with help from John Chevedden and other members of USPX), which went to MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (WFR) on 11/11/2011. Here’s the Whereas portion (the rest is the same as the standard USPX proposal). WHEREAS, Most long-term shareowners have no reasonable means to […]
Looking through a few of the relatively recent no-action letters, I see the SEC continues to buy into substitute proposals at higher thresholds to call a special meeting than those proposed by shareowers. In the latest insult, a no-action letter was issued to Hain Celestial to deflect a proposal from Kenneth Steiner calling for a […]