ESG Options in DC Plans? Morningstar can help you find them. President Trump’s Department of Labor aims to limit ESG investing in retirement plans, although even law firms recognize the need for ESG research. Fund flows and investor interest remained high according to Morningstar’s research, even amid the year’s earlier market downturn. Insights from Morningstar discuss how the Presidential […]
MICUS 2019 was my first Morningstar investment conference. It was HUGE, with lots interesting exhibits, speakers and attendees. I had a chance to chat with Ray Sin who, along with Ryan Murphy and Samantha Lamas, authored The True Faces of Sustainable Investing: Busting Industry Myths Around ESG. Additionally, I got a chance to play a […]
Moskowitz Prize Winner Announced Moskowitz prize winner for 2017 was announced today by the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, in collaboration with The SRI Conference (#AllinForImpact). The prize is named after research pioneer Milt Moskowitz, one of the first researchers to look for the connection between good corporate […]
Research Associate opening at the prestigious and influential Conference Board. Work on corporate governance leadership issues with Douglas K. Chia, Judy McLevey and Matteo Tonello. There aren’t many opportunities like this in the corporate governance industrial complex. Research Associate: Position Summary Conducts research projects developed within The Conference Board’s (more…)
WeConvene Extel and SRI‐CONNECT announced the results of the Independent Research in Responsible Investment Survey 2015; “the most authoritative global survey evaluating how asset managers rate the services of independent providers of sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) & corporate governance (CG) research.” Award winner from the major categories were: (more…)
Now that proxy season is finally winding down, I had a few minutes to take a quick glance at recent research reported on SSRN. Below I am simply including a few citations and abstracts of studies I might find useful in my own activities as a shareholder advocate in the US. I’m sure I included some […]
Now that proxy season is finally winding down, I had a few minutes to take a quick glance at recent research reported on SSRN. Below I am simply including a few citations and abstracts of studies that might be useful for shareholder advocates in the U.S. I’m sure I included some that are strictly academic […]
The Journal of Environmental Investing (JEI) announced the relaunch of their website and a related Call for Papers. (more…)
2014 Poison Pill Impetus, by John Laide of SharkRepellent.net, includes an analysis of last year’s U.S. poison pill adoptions. The post is also available at FactSet Insight, 2014 Poison Pill Impetus: Why are U.S. companies adopting poison pills? He concludes that companies continue to adopt poison pills primarily in response to activist investors. (more…)
Two important surveys are now underway. If you are a board member (director) with a nonprofit, please respond to the first survey request below. If you attended the SRI 2014 Conference in Colorado Springs last week, please find details in the second survey request below. (more…)
Entrenched corporate elites may need to up their public opinion game. Robert Monks and Nell Minow are near the top of their attack list. (Shareholder crusaders Monks and Minow speak out) Having been sued several times for having the audacity to make recommendations to boards via shareowner proposals, I’m on there too. (see EMC v. […]
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Council of Institutional Investors Fall 2014 Conference: Meeting Availability, I’m encouraging a research project looking into the impact that funds announcing their proxy votes in advance have or can have. I’ve joined with Pensions&Investments in arguing funds have a fiduciary duty to make such advance proxy vote disclosures when that could influence the outcome. […]
The SEC this week weighed into the proxy advisor debate with Staff Legal Bulletin 20, which provides information on the proxy voting responsibilities of investment advisers (i.e. professional investors) as well as clarification on the exemptions from federal regulation which apply to proxy advisory firms. (more…)
Guest Post by Nicole Jasso Lopez, corporate lawyer and President at Jurify.com, discussing how Jurify presents corporate governance resources and keeps you up-to-date on developments. Jurify’s mission is to make sense of the law at a time when much information is free but navigating it is becoming increasingly difficult and time-consuming. And corporate governance is […]
Purpose, Use, Potential Misuse of Stock Prices in Public Equity Market Deadline for Proposals: November 15, 2013 Author Presentation of Findings: September 19, 2014 The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute & The Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership have initiated a joint effort to better understand the purpose, use and potential misuse of stock prices in […]
The Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA), an independent non-profit association based in Hong Kong and one of the region’s foremost organizations working in the emerging field of corporate governance, is seeking applications for the new position of Research Director – China / Hong Kong. ACGA carries out its work through research, education and advocacy in […]
The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi) is accepting submissions for its second annual competition for research that examines the interaction of the real economy with investment theory. Two papers – one academic and one practitioner – each will receive the “2013 IRRC Institute Research Award” along with a $10,000 award. A blue-ribbon panel of renowned judges […]
Companies that tout social responsibility and whose managers contribute to political action committees tend to provide higher returns to shareholders, suggests a new University of California, Davis, study Strange Bedfellows? – Voluntary CSR Disclosure and Politics. (more…)
Blair, Margaret M., The Four Functions of Corporate Personhood (April 9, 2012). Vanderbilt Law and Economics Research Paper No. 12-13; Vanderbilt Public Law Research Paper No. 12-15. Available at SSRN. Abstract follows: In this article I argue that the legal device of creating separate juridical “persons” for certain business activities (more…)
The Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) Institute announce its second annual competition for research that examines the interaction of the real economy with investment theory. Two papers – one academic and one practitioner – each will receive the “2013 IRRC Institute Research Award” along with a $10,000 award. A blue-ribbon panel of renowned judges with […]
Last week, the Conference Board and FactSet Research Systems announced a joint initiative to analyze and disseminate aggregate data from the annual general meetings (AGMs) of U.S. public companies. (more…)
According to the Commerce Department, the financial sector accounted for 8.4% of U.S. gross domestic product last year, higher than its previous peak in 2006. In 1950, the financial sector accounted for just 2.8% of GDP. (more…)
Trust and Human Resource Management, edited by Rosalind Searle and Denise Skinner highlight trust as key to human resource management (HRM) from pre-entry to post-employment. The collection will be of great value to academics in the HR field and to practitioners interested in enhancing trust levels in their organizations. Trust has long been associated with […]
I heard Charles L. Howard discuss working on ombuds issues and his book The Organizational Ombudsman during panel presentations at the Silicon Valley Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors and at Stanford University. With all the advantages such offices offer to corporations I was wondering why more corporations haven’t set up programs. At the […]
Webinars on U.S. and European policy perspectives will provide valuable insight into the key corporate governance issues facing investors and companies for 2012. European Policy Perspectives: Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 2:30 PM GMT, 3:30 PM CET. Presented by ISS’ Jean-Nicolas Caprasse, Head of Business, Europe; Daniel Jarman, Head of U.K. Research; Thomas von Oehsen, Head of […]
I welcome the Manhattan Institute‘s Center for Legal Policy to the corporate governance debate. The Manhattan Institute launched its Proxy Monitor project. The ProxyMonitor.org database assembles information on the 150 largest corporations (by revenues, as ranked by Fortune magazine) and currently includes searchable and sortable information on every shareholder proposal submitted at each company from 2008 through August 1, […]
Unless current shareowners suffer a penalty for having CEOs who engage in earnings manipulation and insider trading they are likely to encourage such unethical and damaging behavior, finds a study by Ramy Elitzur, since choosing less ethical managers may be in the best interests of current shareholders, but not future ones. Many accountants believed that markets are efficient […]
Even thought the SEC’s final regulations for the Dodd-Frank whistleblower program just became effective on August 12, 2011, the agency has already filed its first report on the whistleblower program. During the first seven weeks of the program, the agency received 334 whistleblower tips. The SEC itself cautions that “due to the relatively recent launch of the […]
First, the IRRC Deadline of November 18 for Research Entries approaches. This is your chance to change the predominant paradigm of Modern Portfolio Theory. Second, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) extended the comment period on their 2012 proxy voting policies until November 7th. Institutional investors, individual investors, corporate issuers, and governance market participants are invited to provide feedback on ISS’ […]
Friday, November 18, 2011 is the deadline to enter the IRRC Institute’s competition for research that examines the interaction of the real economy with investment theory. Two papers – one academic and one practitioner – will receive the new “IRRC Institute Research Award” along with a $10,000 award. Maybe it is just me, but I’ve […]
Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) opened its comment period for their 2012 proxy voting policies. Institutional investors, corporate issuers, and governance market participants are invited to provide feedback on ISS’ policy updates until October 31. According to Martha Carter, ISS’ Head of Global Research, ISS firmly believes that incorporating multiple views on corporate governance issues is critical for effective policy formulation. The […]
GMI and Si2 announced a strategic partnership to provide seamless subscription access, account management and special pricing to the firms’ ESG Board Briefing Research, Shareholder Proposal Analysis, and Executive Pay Scorecards. The combination of GMI’s compensation analysis with Si2’s expert insights into key environmental and social issues and proposal analysis may create a vital new […]
A George Washington Law School survey that asked alumni which elective courses had proven the most useful to them and which electives they wish they had taken. Here are the top 3 ranked courses on usefulness: (more…)
Quality independent directors are hard to find today. Ask Azim Premji. India’s third-largest IT company, Wipro, is about to join the horde of companies violating Sebi norms by keeping independent directors beyond the suggested nine-year maximum tenure. After the Storm: The Unregulated Effect of a Corporate Governance Crisis (more…)
The ERIAL (Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries) project — a series of studies conducted at Illinois Wesleyan, DePaul University, and Northeastern Illinois University, and the University of (more…)