Shareholder Collaboration
Shareholder Collaboration is a new ECGI working paper by Jill Fisch and Simone M. Sepe. Fisch is one of my favorite researchers, being insightful and less predictable than many of those in the primary...
View ArticleSB 826: Sidley Austin LLP Update
SB 826 requires specified California-based public corporations to include women directors on their board. Sidley Austin LLP put out a bulletin on the topic. To ensure it receives widespread...
View ArticleGlass Lewis 2018 Proxy Advice Update
Glass Lewis 2019 proxy advice updates address many issues. See 2019 Proxy Paper Guidelines: An Overview of the Glass Lewis Approach to Proxy Advice. I have reproduced much of the summary of changes...
View ArticleSEC Proxy Process Video 11-15-2018
SEC Proxy Process Video: November 15, 2018 In the interest of documenting important events in corporate governance, I am here bookmarking the SEC Proxy Process Video from November 15, 2018, for future...
View ArticleDo the Opposite: Franklin Resources Plays George
Do the Opposite was funny in the sitcom Seinfeld but not so funny when Franklin Resources does the opposite of shareholder proposals. In fact, doing the opposite threatens the existence of even the...
View ArticleReal-Time Proxy Voting Disclosure Will Drive Competition
Real-time proxy voting disclosure by big funds could drive competition for investments from individual investors and smaller institutional investors with few resources for proxy analsysis. Such...
View ArticleInvestment Advisers SEC Clarification: Allison Lee
Investment Advisers: Allison Lee Statement Re SEC Guidance Investment advisers, proxy services. – It is not often that I simply reprint a post from another source, in this case the SEC. However, I have...
View ArticleSEC Proposal to Improve Proxy Voting Advice
SEC Proposal to Improve Proxy Voting to Have Opposite Effect SEC proposal to improve proxy voting advice would raise the cost of proxy voting analysis, reduce the number of customers and ultimately...
View ArticleGPW Highlights SEC Blowback
GPW (Global Proxy Watch) discussed selected comments from investors to the SEC concerning two proposed rules in an article entitled Blowback, reproduced below with permission. GPW normally runs two...
View ArticleCorporate Elections: Looking in the Wrong Places
Bartlett Naylor, Financial Policy Reform Advocate, and Taylor Lincoln, Research Director, both with Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division, wrote an excellent post recently, Looking for Conflict in...
View ArticleReview: A Real Look at Real World Corporate Governance
This book follows the theme of Corporate Governance Matters: A Closer Look at Organizational Choices and Their Consequences also by David Larcker and Brian Tayan. Larcker is the James Irvin Miller...
View ArticleCisco Systems: Prime Target For Proxy Advisor Competition
Cisco Systems (CSCO) faces challenges as never before. For example, see Here’s What Happened When Cisco Lost A $1 Billion Deal With Amazon. Meeting those challenges will take a concerted effort by...
View ArticleCisco Systems: Proxy Proposal #5 – 11 Q&A
I received a series of questions about my 11/5/2013 post Cisco Systems: Prime Target For Proxy Advisor Contest. Since other $CSCO shareowners might have similar questions, I am posting the questions...
View ArticleTake Action: Proxy Advisory Services Roundtable Seeks Comments
On November 27, 2013 the SEC Announced the agenda and panelists for their 12/5/2013 Roundtable On Proxy Advisory Services. In the first session, participants will discuss, among other topics, the...
View ArticleDirectors Forum 2014: Morning Sessions
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...
View ArticleCitigroup Inc (C): How I Voted – Proxy Score 33
Citigroup Inc $C, is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 4/22/2014. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of no funds when I checked and voted on 4/15/2014. I...
View ArticleFiduciary Duty to Announce Votes (Part 3): Take Action
This is the last in a three part series. See also Fiduciary Duty to Announce Votes (Part 1): Editorial Calls For Advanced Disclosure and Fiduciary Duty to Announce Votes (Part 2): Historical...
View ArticleLetter to P&I Re Fiduciary Duty Editorial
Below is an email I sent to Pensions & Investments (P&I) editorial chief Barry Burr praising their editorial enhancing fiduciary duty and opining on how it may speed the arrival of the time...
View ArticleHelp Wanted: Jobs in Corporate Governance
Proxy Insight, a brand new service providing the most comprehensive information on the actual voting behaviour of key global shareholders, is currently recruiting for a number of positions as outlined...
View ArticleCalifornia’s Savings Plus: Better Proxy Voting Disclosure Needed Part II
This is the second of a two part series. Part I discussed proxy voting at Savings Plus, as compared with at CalPERS. CalHR’s Current RFP for Savings Plus CalHR recently released a Request for Proposal...
View ArticleSavings Plus: Transparent Proxy Voting Needed
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...
View ArticleWill Corporate Elites Attack Public Opinion Next?
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...
View ArticleCEO Pay: Link to the Cost and Future Value of Capital
Total shareholder return (TSR), is the most frequent metric used to pay CEOs for performance. The authors of this excellent study from IRRCi believe CEO pay should, instead, be linked to the cost and...
View ArticleAlignment Gap Between Say on Pay Voting & Creating Value
A new study finds that economic value creation is not a major factor in institutional investors’ Say-on-Pay voting, nor in the recommendations of the two largest proxy advisors that counsel investors...
View ArticleApple: The Case for Proxy Access
Update: Preliminary voting results indicate that our proxy access proposal got 39% of the vote. Yes, the proposal could have been worded to more closely conform to the Rule 14a-11 standards. Hopefully,...
View ArticleReplay the Glass Lewis Conference Call on Proxy Access
On Thursday March 5th proxy advisor Glass Lewis held a conference call to discuss proxy access, i.e. the right for shareholders to place their director nominees on company proxies, instead of having to...
View ArticleProxy Access at FirstMerit, No Exception
FirstMerit (FMER) included a management proposal for proxy access in their annual meeting agenda and excluded a shareholder proposal on the same topic from the Firefighter’s Pension System of the City...
View ArticleVote Real Proxy Access at Whole Foods
Today is your last chance to vote for real proxy access at Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM, $WFM), unless you plan to attend the meeting in San Francisco tomorrow. The annual shareholder’s meeting will be...
View Article‘Substantial Implementation’ Will Backfire
Substantial implementation, that’s the deception companies have been arguing in order to obtain ‘no-action’ relief under SEC Rule 14a-8(i)(10) after implementing proxy access ‘lite.’ Law firms have...
View ArticleIllegal Marrone Bio Vote Suppression
Illegal Marrone Bio proxy threatens not only their own shareholders but those of all companies. If Marrone Bio gets away with it, so can others. What can we do when a company violates the law and the...
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