Tag Archives | Nell Minow

Saving American Democracy in the Age of Citizens United

Saving American Democracy in the Age of Citizens United

Saving American Democracy in the Age of Citizens United, that’s the subtitle of a new book by Robert A.G. Monks entitled The Emperor’s Nightmare. The subtitle speaks to the book’s forward thrust. The title puts that in the context of a long journey in corporate governance by Monks. The cover of Power and Accountability in 1991 […]

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Corporate Accountability Fall 2021

Corporate Accountability Fall 2021 Online Forum

Corporate Accountability Fall 2021: Restoring the Balance. This is your chance to discuss the issues with Nell Minow, Michae O’Leary, Andy Behar, Josh Zinner, Doug Chia, Bruce F. Freed, Heidi Welsh, Jon Lukomnik, Tim Smith, Christina Sautter, Rick Alexander, Karen E. Woody, Sanford Lewis. Spring will include Leo Strine Jr, Brandon Rees, Jackie Cook, David […]

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GPW Blowback

GPW Highlights SEC Blowback

GPW (Global Proxy Watch) discussed selected comments from investors to the SEC concerning two proposed rules in an article entitled Blowback, reproduced below with permission. GPW normally runs two pages, summarzing weekly developments on governance and stewardship from Stephen Davis and Aaron Bernstein. Blowback took almost a page. (more…)

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File No. S7-22-19 SEC Release

File No. S7-22-19: My Deadline Comments

File No. S7-22-19, SEC proposed rules based on input from entrenched corporate managers and boards, would cripple proxy advisory services. File No. S7-22-19 would not protect investors, as is the mission of the SEC. Proxy advisors survey their customers each year asking them how they stand on various issues. Then they research thousands of proxies on […]

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Sock Puppets for Proxy Advisory Rule

Sock Puppets for Proxy Advisory Rule

Sock puppets are trying to generate another round of astro-turf comment letters to the SEC. Proxy advisors do NOT file shareholder proposals. Your money is NOT being stolen to pay for abortions. Shareholder proposals are nonbinding and do NOT give money to anyone. This YouTube video is full of lies made up by fake organizations […]

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Verbal No-Action Decisions - SEC Lost Its Head

Verbal No-Action Decisions Questioned

Verbal No-Action Decisions Slammed by Shareholder Rights Group Verbal no-action decisions by the SEC threaten the integrity of corporate governance. On September 6, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a new policy providing for verbal no-action decisions that could significantly reduce transparency and accountability in the process of enforcement of the rules on shareholder proposals. […]

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GPW 12-7-18

2018 GPW 10: Corporate Governance Impact

Global Proxy Watch (GPW) is terrific publication by Stephen Davis and Aaron Bernstein aimed at the corporate governance industrial complex. I read every word of every issue. It only runs a couple of pages, but it is jammed packed with news that cannot be found elsewhere. Here’s one article that took up about 1/4 of the […]

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Seventh Annual IRRCi Research Award

Seventh Annual IRRCi Research Award

The seventh annual IRRCi deadline for submissions draws near. The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi) is accepting submissions for its seventh annual competition for research that examines the interaction between the real economy and investment theory. (more…)

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Nell Minow

Nell Minow: Only Corporate Governance Can Save the World

Nell Minow is one of my heroes. Her 1991 book with Bob Monks, Power and Accountability: Restoring the Balances of Power Between Corporations and Society, helped me give a name and framework to what I thought was the world’s most important overlooked problem — corporate governance. During the last 27 years, I have never met […]

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Spending Against Change

Spending Against Change Heightens Climate Risk

Spending Against Change, a new report from the 50/50 Climate Project, finds that twenty-one of the largest energy and utility companies in the U.S. that have spent at least $670 million over six years to influence elections, regulators and lawmakers have limited board oversight of climate risk and political spending, and lack climate competent board members. These corporations face the highest exposure […]

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William Steiner and son Kenneth Steiner

William Steiner, Shareholder Activist

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 […]

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IRRCi Research Award Winners

IRRCi Research Award Submissions Due

IRRCi Research Award Submission Deadline is October 6, 2017. Two categories: Practitioner and Academic. Winners to Receive $10,000 each and get to present at the 2107 influential Columbia University Millstein Center Forum. The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi) is accepting submissions through October 6, 2017, for its sixth annual competition for research that examines the interaction […]

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ESG

Report from CII Winter Meeting: ESG

Even in Washington, the numbers are impressive. The Council of Institutional Investors, who met in Washington DC this week, represents 23 trillion (with a t) dollars, mostly made up of retirement and other savings of working families. Compare that to the entire budget of the US government, less than two trillion a year. Like most […]

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Nell Minow

Nell Minow: Advice for Shareholders

What better way to bring in the new year than to get advice from Nell Minow, the Queen of Good Corporate Governance, especially with the Trump Administration about to begin? In the talk below, Minow addresses an audience sponsored by the Center for Study of Responsive Law, which held its second four-day conference on securing […]

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The Handbook of Board Governance - book cover

The Handbook of Board Governance: Part 3

I continue my review of The Handbook of Board Governance: A Comprehensive Guide for Public, Private, and Not-for-Profit Board Member. With the current post, I provide comments on Part 3 of the book, Risk Governance, Assurance and the Duties of Directors. See prior introductory comments and those on Part 1 and Part 2. I suspect the book will soon be the most popular […]

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Dr. Richard LeBlanc

LeBlanc on Key Steps to an Effective Board

A North American board governance guru, Dr. Richard LeBlanc is put on the hot seat to discuss key steps to creating a great board—and how investors can know how effective their board really is. LeBlanc and host TK Kerstetter talk about board leadership, board assessments, board recruitment and composition. Kerstetter also quizzes LeBlanc about his […]

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Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi) Awards

IRRCi Investor Research Award Submission Deadline 9/15

The Investor Responsibility Research  Center Institute (IRRCi)  is accepting submissions for its fourth annual Investor Research Award competition for research that examines the interaction between the real economy and investment theory. Practitioners and academics are invited to submit research papers by September 15, 2015, for consideration by a blue-ribbon panel of judges with deep finance and investment experience. Two research […]

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ValueEdge Advisors

ValueEdge Advisors Blog

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 […]

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Federico Buenrostro

Federico Buenrostro Pleads Guilty

It is good to see former CalPERS CEO Federico R. Buenrostro finally pleading guilty, with “sources” telling Pensions & Investments that “his admissions could result in expanded criminal charges for his codefendant… Alfred Villalobos,” as well as possible “indictments against two former CalPERS board members, Kurato Shimada and Charles Valdes.” (Guilty plea opens new chapter […]

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July 2014: 5, 10 & 15 Years Ago in Corporate Governance

Corporate Governance Publisher’s Note: Yes, you’ll find many broken links in the material referenced below. After 5, 10 and 15 years, the internet moves on. Many of the organization’s linked have since gone under. We’re just glad to still be here, offering our readers a sense of the history we have shared. More about the WABAC […]

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Fiduciary Duty to Announce Votes (Part 3): Take Action

Fiduciary Duty to Announce Votes (Part 3): Take Action

This is the last in a three part series. See also Fiduciary Duty to Announce Votes (Part 1): Editorial Calls For Advanced Disclosure and Fiduciary Duty to Announce Votes (Part 2): Historical Background. Take Action: Ask your mutual fund, pension fund, and/or endowment to: Send you a copy of their proxy voting policies and their proxy […]

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Robert-AG-Monks

Fiduciary Duty to Announce Votes (Part 2): Historical Background

This is the second of a three part series. See also Fiduciary Duty to Announce Votes (Part 1): Editorial Calls For Advanced Disclosure and Fiduciary Duty to Announce Votes (Part 3): Take Action. A major landmark in establishing a fiduciary duty for proxy voting was the Department of Labor’s (DOL) 1988 Avon Letter, which was based on specific sections […]

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Take Action: Join Nader's Penny Brigade

Some have argued that Ralph Nader started socially responsible shareholder activism with Campaign GM, when the group filed shareholder proposals to expand GM’s board to include consumer advocates and empower shareholders to place their board nominees on GM’s proxy ballot (proxy access).  According to a recent article in the WSJ, the longtime consumer advocate is now putting […]

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Stanford Academics Focus on Wrong Problems at ISS

In a recent Stanford “Closer Look” publication (How ISS Dictates Equity Plan Design), Ian D. Gow (Harvard but graduated from Stanford), David F. Larcker, Allan l. Mccall, and Brian Tayan argue ISS dictates pay equity plans. ‘Nonsense,’ was my first reaction. ISS policies generally reflect the will of its customers. The authors have a point […]

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Video Friday – Corporate Speech: The Role of Corporations in Lobbying and Influencing Policy

Moderator: Jesse Eisinger, reporter at ProPublica, covering Wall Street and finance. Panelists: Martin Redish, NU Law; Robert A. Weinberger, Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute Initiative on Financial Security; former VP Government Relations, H&R Block; Chairman, Center for Responsive Politics; Lynn Stout, Cornell Law; Nell Minow, founder of GMI Ratings and co-founder and editor of the Corporate […]

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Nell Minow: The Unfinished Business of Corporate Governance

Writing in the March/April edition of The Corporate Board, Nell Minow titles her latest bit of advice, The Unfinished Business of Corporate Governance. Here’s the lead in: After a decade of frantic corporate governance reform, business leaders may believe that governance has reached the pinnacle of responsibility and effectiveness. Not so fast, says Nell Minow, […]

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International Review Focuses on Executive Compensation

I received my copy of the November edition of Corporate Governance: An International Review a couple of weeks ago (yes, they usually run late). It is a special issue on executive compensation with the usual diversity of well-researched articles from around the globe. I notice that most, if not all, of the articles are available online […]

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Minow v Minow

Nell Minow claimed another award recently. The University of Chicago gave her an Alumni Association 2010 Professional Achievement Award. In her coverage, Meg McSherry Breslin includes this interesting bit of history concerning a run in with her father, Newton Minow, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and a senior counsel at the Chicago […]

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Ensuring Bad News Gets Above the 77th Floor

Recommended reading or listening: Diane Sanger Memorial Lecture by Nell Minow, sponsored by the SEC Historical Society and delivered on March 17, 2010. Her talk took on a wide range of topics, including: What Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin, and Andrew Carnegie had in common, Adventures with Bob Monks, The impact of Lewis Gilbert, current […]

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Archives: November 2008

Noteworthy What Will TARP Bring? (RMG, 11/24/08), see especially comments from Connecticut State Treasurer Denise Nappier Issues to Consider: Special Meetings to Authorize TARP Preferred Stock(TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog, 11/25/08). Most companies don’t have the authority to issue preferred shares under their charter and are scrambling to file preliminary proxy materials for a special meeting to obtain shareholder […]

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