Resolution MB 8/09, approved at CSEA’s last General Council, sought to expand on the leadership CalPERS has shown in the area of corporate governance by exploring how CalPERS could better influence the proxy voting of its own members and in helping us to evaluate which mutual funds vote in alignment with our own values and […]
Tag Archives | proxy voting
Shareowners Speak Louder in 2011
Passive or apathetic investors, take vote [note] : Now your votes have actually begun to mean something. More so than ever, shareholders can truly feel like they’re part owners of public companies. That makes now the perfect time for a push for better corporate governance policies. As it turns out, large institutional shareholders are striking […]
How I Voted at Hain, Cisco & Accuray
I waited too long to vote on the MoxyVote.com platform. However, even waiting until the day before the meeting, I was still only able to get minimal advice. I hearty thanks goes out to CalSTRS and their cooperation with ProxyDemocracy.org. At least they had announced votes for Hain and Accuray as I cast my votes […]
E-Mail from Lynn Turner on Proxy Access
An email from Lynn Turner below and frequent emails this morning from Tracey Rembert highlight key provisions we are in danger of losing, in the broader fight for shareowner rights and corporate governance. Elected officials need to hear from all of us about how important these provisions are, especially proxy access. Corporations are lobbying hard […]
Q&A on Client Directed Voting
Historically, most retail shareowners have tossed their proxies. During the first year under the “notice and access” method for Internet delivery of proxy materials, less than 6% voted. This contrasts with almost all institutional investors voting, since they have a fiduciary duty to do so. “Client directed voting” (CDV), a term coined by Stephen Norman […]
How I Voted: SunOpta, Ballard, Sirius, RiskMetrics
Sorry to say my usual sources for voting advice had very little to say on several of my smaller companies. I found no advice on SunOpta or Ballard Power Systems, so voted with management on both. For Sirius Satellite Radio, I voted with Trillium… the only fund with votes posted to ProxyDemocracy.org. For RiskMetrics, I […]
How I Voted: Home Depot, Interface & Talbots
Home Depot: Since I’m only getting around to voting the day before the meeting I knew I couldn’t vote at MoxyVote.com but I went there anyway because it is very easy to pull up the proxy there. I also went to CalPERS but they had no voting advice on HD. I then went to ProxyDemocracy.org, […]
How I Voted at EW Scripps, Dreamworks & Valeant
I procrastinated too long to vote at MoxyVote.com on these issues. They close voting three days in advance, since they are in beta and are want to be able to ensure against last minute glitches. I checked for votes at ProxyDemocracy.org and voted with Florida SBA at EW Scripps and Dreamworks. At Valeant, I voted […]
How Votes are Counted: More Important Than Who Votes at Plum Creek
Newground Social Investment won a first-of-its-kind vote at Plum Creek Timber, the nation’s largest private landholder. Their resolution, which got an 18% FOR vote asked the company to change its vote-counting practices. Plum Creek agreed to revise its vote-counting formula to remove Broker Non-Votes. The resolved portion of their resolution read as follows: RESOLVED: The shareholders of Plum […]
How I Voted at Goldman Sachs & 3M
At Goldman Sachs I voted down the line with AFSCME, with the help of ProxyDemocracy.org: withholding my vote from four directors, voting against the auditor and voting for all the shareowner resolutions, except one. You might think from its title that “Report on Global Warming Science” would be a something positive. It is not. Unfortunately, […]
How I Voted at Winmark, Rovi, Under Armour, Fluor and Waste Connections
Busy week coming, so I used ProxyDemocracy.org on Sunday mostly to research how my favorite “brands” voted and MoxyVote.com to vote. Here are the results: Winmark – I got no voting advice from my usual sources, so voted with management’s recommendations. Rovi – I voted with the recommendations of Florida SBA and management’s recommendations. Under […]
Reform Indian Corporate Governance Practices
Shubi Arora begins a three part report on the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA) White Paper on Corporate Governance in India. The need for improvement in Indian Corporate Governance Practices: Part I, 4/12/2010. It concluded that while India has enacted numerous reforms in corporate governance, especially in the area of company boards, independent directors, and […]
Proxy Preview 2010
Proxy Preview is an annual publication that focuses on upcoming social and environmental shareholder proposals. However, it also includes some information on governance proposals as well. It was initiated to help foundations and endowments better align investment and mission but it is useful for other organizations or individual shareholders. The Proxy Preview is published by […]
AFL-CIO Key Votes
Since 1997, the AFL-CIO’s Key Votes Survey has helped pension fund trustees fulfill their fiduciary obligations to monitor their investment managers’ proxy voting performance. The proposals included in the Key Votes Survey are submitted by a variety of union-sponsored and public pension funds, employee shareholders and other investors and are consistent with the AFL-CIO Proxy […]
0.3% of Directorships Voted Down in 2009: Will 2010 Be Different?
The Corporate Library announced a new enhancement to its Board Analyst® product: the ability to visually flag specific areas of potential concern for individual directors. (‘Director Flags’ Zero In On Potential Areas of Concern for Individual Board Members, The Corporate Library Blog, 3/8/10) With the end of “broker voting” for directors and the adoption by […]
Canadian Pensions Fail to Provide Proxy Voting Direction
The Shareholder Association for Research and Education’s (SHARE) ninth annual Key Proxy Vote Survey found that a substantial proportion of investment managers (71%) say they vote most of their pension fund clients’ proxies at their own discretion, without instructions or guidance from their clients. “We saw a 10% decrease this year in the number of […]
Vote Disclosure Coming at Pension Funds
At a hearing on compensation in the financial services industry, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said, “If you are the owner of shares … you have a privacy right, but if you own shares on behalf of a fiduciary you will need to disclose how you vote.” In late 2003, after years of […]
Major Shift in Proxy Voting Policy at State Street
Last year Walden Asset Management filed a resolution at State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) seeking a proxy review. While SSgA successfully obtained a “no-action” letter from the SEC, their voting practices were still the subject of a debate at the annual meeting. This year United for a Fair Economy picked up the torch and filed […]
Fiduciary Responsibilities for Proxy Voting
O’Barr, Conley and Brancato trace the common thread in the culture of pension funds in their book, Fortune and Folly: The Wealth and Power of Institutional Investing, to “an overriding concern with managing personal relationships” and an all pervasive “need to manage responsibility and blame.” Involvement by fund trustees in corporate governance issues is not yet the […]