The Business Roundtable Proxy “Reform” Agenda was recently released in a position paper entitled “The Need for Bold Proxy Process Reforms.” Far from encouraging healthy corporate governance, their agenda presents a grave threat to shareholder rights, public accountability, and efforts to address environmental and social challenges through the corporate ballot. This is yet another plan […]
SRG Responds to HP, (SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce). Peirce wants to ensure shareholders who file resolutions have “some meaningful economic stake or investment interest in a company.” Our lawsuit against the SEC for a previous rulemaking by Chair Clayton, with the help of Peirce, which increased the qualifications for filing a shareholder proposal tenfold, is […]
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. […]
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 […]
What 2020 shareholder resolutions can we expect to see in our proxies this year? Two of the most frequent compilers and filers are ICCR and As You Sow. Plus I also tell you about my own below. (more…)
File No. S7-23-19 would set draconian requirements to submit and to resubmit shareholder proposals based on the desire of entrenched managements and boards to thwart accountability and to create democratic-free zones around corporate governance.
Proposals & shareholders are under attack by the SEC. Review finds no necessity for SEC proposed rules and a likely market cost of billions of dollars in American wealth. (more…)
Bernard Sharfman notified me of his post, Public-pension funds play with newest toy in corporate governance, saying: “As you know I am not a big fan of proxy access.” I was looking forward to a thoughtful analysis of the issues but that is not what I found. The R Street blog, where his piece was posted, […]
Yesterday (2/10/2015), Corp Fin Director Keith Higgins delivered this interesting speech entitled “Rule 14a-8: Conflicting Proposals, Conflicting Views.” There are some really interesting things in this speech on counterproposals, etc., although there isn’t much that helps those companies grappling with proxy access shareholder proposals this proxy season (but there is some, such as #6 below). […]
Disclaimer: I’m sharing a few notes from Directors Forum 2015 held at San Diego University beginning 2/25/2015 and ending 2/27/2015. The Forum was held under the Chatham House Rule, so you won’t read any juicy tidbits here. However, I do hope to give readers some flavor of the topics discussed and a little on the general […]
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 […]
I’ve previously written two posts on California’s Savings Plus program and how one major contractor, Northern Trust has voted. (Part I & Part II) Below, I compare the votes of Northern Trust on proxy proposals with those recommended by the AFL-CIO. A similar exercise could be performed at any deferred compensation plan. Shareholders have voting rights, […]
Broc Romanek‘s CorporateAffairs.tv has started with a bang and plenty of early content in the form of brief videos that even those of us with attention deficit disorder can watch without missing a beat. Some in the ‘entertainment’ category are not so much for me. Still, it is great to see Broc and friends having […]
Below are some notes I took during the morning sessions at the Corporate Directors Forum 2014, held on the beautiful campus of the University of San Diego, January 26-28, 2014. This year, I was only able to attend on January 27th. The program was subject to the Chatham House Rule, so there will be little in the way of attribution […]
Two more reviews of the 2013 proxy season came out the other day. The quickest read is from Jackie Cook at CookESG (Proxy Season Roundup: Shareholder Resolutions) who analyzed 502 shareholder-sponsored resolutions voted between July 2012 and June 2013. Two-thirds are governance-related, averaging 41% support. One-third address social and environmental issues, with an average 21% level […]
Key Characteristics of Prominent Shareholder-sponsored Proposals on Environmental and Social Topics, 2005-2011, released by the IRRC Institute (IRRCi) and researched by Ernst & Young LLP finds environmental and social (E+S) shareowner proposals are gaining increased support from investors at US companies. Download the report, presentation, press release and even replay the webinar from IRRCi’s website. (more…)
ISS updated its proxy voting policies. The most interesting to me is the “Board Response to Majority Supported Proposals.” The marketplace has been evolving in the matter of board responsiveness to majority-supported shareholder proposals, both in terms of institutional investors’ expectations, and in terms of the actual responsiveness by issuers. ISS’ 2012-2013 Policy Survey results show […]
On This Week in the Boardroom (TWIB) James Copland, Director & Senior Fellow with the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal Policy, sits down with host, Scott Cutler, Executive Vice President, NYSE Euronext to review the results of Proxy Monitor 2012: A Report on Corporate Governance and Shareholder Activism. (more…)
Important news tidbits you may have missed. The co-operative sector in the UK, which reached £35.6 billion, outperformed the mainstream economy from 2008 to 2011 by over 20 per cent, growing 19.6% while (more…)
Learn to minimize the “risk” of proxy access and more in this free webinar from Corporate Secretary. Listen to find out how proactive governance can protect you, your board, your company and your brand in our free webinar at 12 noon EDT on April 26, 2012. (more…)
The respected scholar, Lawrence Hamermesh, writes about the model proxy access proposal published by United States Proxy Exchange (USPX) and asks why an organization whose motto (”Populus Constituit,” the people decide) is so reluctant to file mandatory bylaw proposals, instead of precatory proposals. (Precatory proxy access proposals, The Institute of Delaware corporate and Business Law, 11/15/2011) Hamermesh speculates USPX […]
As I indicated in What Would Proxy Access Look Like if Done Right? the ruling that struck down the SEC’s main proxy access Rule 14a-11 didn’t strike down amendments to Rule 14a-8(i)(8), allowing shareowners to resume filing proxy access precatory and bylaw proposals. Those amendments were placed on hold by the SEC last October after […]
Here’s a brief note I just sent to the SEC: Dear Chairman Mary Schapiro and Mr. Greg Belliston: On April 12 I alerted you to the fact that Kinetic Concepts has said they will exclude a shareowner proposal from Mr. John Chevedden even though the SEC refused to issue them a no-action letter. I warned […]
The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research’s Center for Legal Policy, a conservative, market-orientated think tank, launched a new proxy monitoring resource: ProxyMonitor.org. This searchable database of shareowner proposals at the 100 largest U.S. companies over the past three years could be a valuable resource for management and shareowner activists alike. Sort through the data by […]
VoterMedia.org has applied for a $200,000 grant from the James L. Knight Foundation in the Sustainability category, which is for new economic models supporting news and information. New ways of conducting and consuming journalism require new ways of paying for it. The Knight New Challenge is open to ideas for generating revenue, as well as […]
Hoping to put an end to the efforts by certain executives to frustrate the ability of shareowners to submit proposals, I joined with John Chevedden and Glyn Holton in providing written advice to Meredith Cross, Director Division of Corporation Finance at the SEC, on a proposed staff legal bulletin interpreting Rule 14a-8(b)(2). Our letter explains […]
I see this blog as something of a collective work, since it started out as an internet site that simply shared a bunch of bookmarks and corporate governance items that needed attention. This post continues in that tradition and mainly goes out to those of you who have been submitting shareowner proposals for many years. […]
John Chevedden helped me draft and defend a resolution at Whole Foods Markets that requests the Board to adopt a policy establishing an engagement process with proponents of shareowner proposals supported by a majority of the votes cast, excluding abstentions and broker non-votes, at any annual meeting. It seemed like a rather straight-forward and simple […]