Procter & Gamble 2021 annual meeting is October 12, 9AM Pacific Time. To attend the virtual meeting, you will need to visit www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/PG2021 and use your 16-digit control number provided in the Notice or proxy card to log into the meeting. Of course, I recommend voting in advance. This proxy should have special significance to participants in […]
SHARE Summit 2021 was a virtual event this year. I missed the sidebar conversations so important at most conferences. Additionally, since I was home and had plenty of work to do, I attended fewer sessions than I would have in Vancouver. Still, even when virtual, this annual conference is among the best. I cannot think […]
SHARE Investor Summit 2021, register. This will be a fantastic virtual event, February 16-19, 2021. Against the backdrop of the social and economic impacts of COVID-19, escalating wealth inequality, systemic racism, and the continuing climate crisis, we rise to the challenge. The SHARE Investor Summit 2021 brings together investment decision-makers and leaders to identify ways of […]
The Walt Disney Company (DIS), operates as an entertainment company worldwide. Most shareholders don’t vote because reading through 74 pages of the proxy AND many more pages of appendices is not worth the time for the small difference your vote will make. Below, I tell you how I am voting and why. If you have read […]
The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), together with its subsidiaries, operates as an entertainment company worldwide. The Walt Disney Company is one of the stocks in my portfolio. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of three fund families when I checked and voted. Their annual meeting is coming up on March 8, 2017. I voted FOR Proxy Access Amendments. See […]
Anti-hypocrisy proposals could be the most important ones of the season. I purchased shares on Franklin Resources (BEN) so that I could file anti-hypocrisy proposals, of the same variety we get to vote on at the February 15, 2017, annual meeting. I had not owned my shares for a year as of the filing deadline last […]
The Australian Government is set to repeal an existing provision in the Corporations Act that allows 100 shareholders the flexibility to require a company to convene an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to consider a resolution outside of the annual meeting process. Business lobbyists including the Business Council of Australia (BCA) and the Australia Institute of […]
In a global first, a group of institutional asset owners and managers are jointly calling for comprehensive transparency and disclosure to be adopted as core principles in reform of the international taxation system to be put before the G20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane this weekend. The group including the £150B UK Local Authority Pension Fund […]
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 machine. […]
Guest Proxy Season Review: Paul Marsland is a regular panelist and contributor to publications on corporate governance issues and has served in a number of senior roles at PIRC Ltd the UK based corporate governance consultancy most recently as Head of Policy. Time to take stock of the proxy season. The proxy season means February in […]
Whole Foods Market, Inc. $WFM is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 2/24/2014. ProxyDemocracy.org was down for maintenance when I checked and voted on 2/16/2013, so no voting advice there. Fortunately, I did get some help from PIRC. I voted with management 75% of the time. View Proxy Statement. (more…)
The deadline for submitting comments on the SEC’s proposed pay ratio disclosure is coming up quickly on December 2, 2013. SEC general comment instructions. Submit Comments on S7-07-13 Pay Ratio Disclosure. Get your comments in soon, before Thanksgiving. Another advantage to earlier submittal is that those who wait for the deadline are likely to borrow from previous […]
A new study finds that controlled companies – particularly those with multiple classes of shares – generally underperform over the long term. As compared to companies with dispersed ownership, controlled companies experience more stock price volatility, increased material weakness in accounting controls, more related party transactions, and offer fewer rights to unaffiliated shareholders. The study […]
My wife, Myra Young, submitted a proxy proposal to Costco aimed at establishing a new and innovative way for shareowners to obtain proxy voting advice. The proposal would set up a contest, pay for proxy advice out of entry fees and corporate funds, and would then share the advice of four winners with all Costco shareowners. […]
How Not to Argue for Bonuses. Reprinted with permission from PIRC Alerts, 17 July 2012. PIRC is the UK’s leading independent research and advisory consultancy providing services to institutional investors on corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. (more…)
The Activist Investor – Why Companies Oppose Proxy Access discusses three possibilities: (more…)
A PIRC 2012 Conference, titled Preventing the Next Crisis, will take place on Wednesday 22 February 2012. (more…)
Pay continues to be the biggest issue this proxy season. The May 17 edition of Pirc Alert had several articles on point. In “A challenge to high pay” they discuss some of the findings by the High Pay Commission. Here’s a few choice tidbits from the Commission’s report: attempts to link top pay with company performance […]
Ever since the demise of Enron, I’ve wondered why the vote by shareowners to approve auditors is considered such a routine nonevent. Ask anyone who used to work for former big five firm Arthur Andersen LLP. Yet, “ratification” of auditors remains among the last holdouts of broker voting. Who watches the watchers in the world of […]
The membership of remuneration committees should be widened to allow employee or shareholder representatives to participate in order to make their operation more effective and facilitate pay restraint, according to Europe’s largest independent proxy agency PIRC. In its submission to the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) consultation on short-termism, PIRC argues that encouraging […]
In recognition of the important contribution that journalists make in the areas of corporate governance and responsible investment, and to encourage quality journalism, PIRC and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP are awarding Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment Journalism Awards. These awards will recognize journalists who are helping record and clearly explain the issues emerging […]
“Bank of America persuaded the SEC to drop “proxy access” provision as they negotiated a $150 million settlement of a lawsuit tied to the takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co… The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than 3 million companies, has said “activist shareholders” would use proxy access to hijack elections to pursue […]