Pay Equity Disclosure 2023 is a hot topic for CorpGov.net thanks to assistance from Julia Cedarholm of Arjuna Capital, who contributed to their groundbreaking Racial and Gender Pay Scorecard. Arjuna’s efforts in this area and their reports since 2018 are impressive. Over the last seven years, 143 shareholder proposals requesting pay gap disclosures have been filed […]
SEC Trampled Rights. September 23 was a bad day for shareholders, society, and the environment. It was an action typical of the Trump Administration, where political appointees work counter to the missions of regulatory bodies. The only significant “support” for the amendments from shareholders came from a few fake letters, which Chairman Clayton read into […]
Constructive engagement is, supposedly, the primary reason for the SEC’s proposed new rules. As Chairman Clayton noted, Today’s proposed amendments follow from the staff’s extensive experience with shareholder proposals and recognize the significant changes that have taken place in our markets in the decades since these regulatory requirements were last revised, including, in particular, the […]
The Northern Trust Corporation (NTRS) is moving toward more democratic governance, thanks to a proxy access proposal submitted on my behalf by John Chevedden in November. Since I own no where near 1% of NTRS (market cap $23B), we would have been denied the right to file the proposal if the Chamber of Commerce, Business […]
Recently, with the revelations about Exxon’s past support for climate denial organizations hitting the news, there has been a fresh interest in the ways oil companies have used their lobbying and contributions to oppose climate change solutions. For example most oil companies are members of the Chamber and American Petroleum Association, which recently sued the EPA […]
The Walt Disney Company $DIS will hold their annual meeting tomorrow (3/12/2014). Today is the last day to vote unless you attend the meeting. My voting recommendations are at The Walt Disney Company (DIS): Proxy Score 79. Since that post a few additional funds have voted and there has been further debate: (more…)
There has been much controversy in recent years surrounding the dual role of chair and CEO. The number of independent chair shareholder proposals seeking to separate the two positions has increased significantly and continues to rise. Both Disney and Starbucks have faced this issue in the past and shareholders once again have proposed to split […]
Citigroup (C) and shareowner activist James McRitchie, who publishes the popular website CorpGov.net, reached an agreement this week on a proxy access proposal that would allow shareowners to place their nominees directly on the corporate proxy. (more…)
The Counsel of Institutional Investors (CII) took a very strong stand yesterday, asking Whole Foods Market to amend its proxy access proposal to conform with the “3 percent for three years” standard applicable to groups. Whole Foods appears to have generated their proposal in direct response to mine in order to obtain a no-action letter from the […]
Here’s one of the most interesting proxy proposals I have seen so far during this new season. I wasn’t aware of similar resolutions filed by Zevin until recently notified by Timothy Smith. If BNY Mellon is a PRI signatory, why are they consistently voting against what PRI stands for? Let’s see more proposals like this. […]
In February, I reported that prospects were looking up at nano-cap CSP, Inc. (CSPI), one of the companies in my portfolio. See CSP Inc. (CSPI): How I Voted – Proxy Score 100. CSPI completed a number of reforms, including declassifying the Board. In addition, CSPI started paying a dividend and adopted a mandatory retirement age of 75 for […]
Amy L. Goodman and John F. Olson, both of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP posted Shareholder Proposal Developments During the 2014 Proxy Season on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation yesterday. It included some good information and analysis but seemed a bit too much like the response to a shareholder […]
It’s a case of legal déjà vu for John Chevedden. The retired aerospace worker and shareholder activist is once again facing a legal challenge in his attempt to submit a proposal to shareholders of a public company. This time, it’s KBR. Last year, Chevedden was sued by Apache Corp., which rejected his shareholder proposal because […]
2010 Corporate Governance of the Largest US Public Companies General Governance Practices (Shearman & Sterling LLP, pdf) The survey provides a wealth of data concerning board practices at the top 100 companies. A few highlights with a focus on issues of significance to shareowners: 82 have implemented some form of majority voting in uncontested director elections, […]