HP Nomination Committee Under Fire
I recently got this from an anonymous member (here are related thoughts from Cydney Posner and Marty Lipton): You may have seen the stories regarding ISS’ recommendation that shareholders withhold...
View ArticleKinetic Concepts: Victory for Shareowners!
I was about to sit down this morning and write another scathing post on Kinetic Concepts when I learned of their press release announcing they will gradually declassify their board. They gave no reason...
View ArticleRegulations for Proxy Advisory Firms Urged
Earlier today, the Shareholder Communications Coalition, composed of organizations not generally associated with shareholder advocates (Business Roundtable, National Investor Relations Institute,...
View ArticleCorporate Directors Forum 2012 – Part 5: Proxy Advisors; Fashion Police?
These are some relatively quick notes that I’m sharing from the Corporate Directors Forum 2012, held on the beautiful campus of the University of San Diego, January 22-24, 2012. Since I am busy with...
View ArticleMonitoring: Which Institutions Matter?
Worth taking another look, especially in light of the likely upcoming transition at Canadian Pacific (Bill Ackman: ‘A Stake in the Ground, Globe & Mail, 5/11/2012): Li, Kai, Harford, Jarrad and...
View ArticleWal-Mart: How I Voted – Proxy Score 10%
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) ($WMT) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/1/2012. Voting ends 5/31 on Moxy Vote’s proxy voting platform, which had 8 recommendations...
View ArticleFailed SOP Companies Become Targets
I’m bookmarking 2012 Say-on-Pay Votes: Fulfilled Expectations, Though Not Without Surprises by Shirley Westcott of Alliance Advisors, LLC. for future reference. My primary purpose in linking to this...
View ArticleVideo Friday: Defending Against Negative Say-On-Pay Recommendations
In say-on-pay’s second year, recommendations from proxy advisors have grown in significance for public companies. This week’s Behind The Numbers, from Equilar takes a look at firms that faced daunting...
View ArticleCostco: Proxy Advisor Contest Proposed
My wife, Myra Young, submitted a proxy proposal to Costco aimed at establishing a new and innovative way for shareowners to obtain proxy voting advice. The proposal would set up a contest, pay for...
View ArticleProxy Access: A New Version for 2013
Update: This is a revised version of an earlier post this month. I’ve deleted that post because I don’t want anyone to mistakenly use the prior draft language. I’m hoping this language is a little...
View ArticleEvent: The Role of Proxy Advisory Firms
The U.S. Chamber Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC) will hold a half-day event on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 in Washington DC to take an in-depth look at the influence of proxy advisors...
View ArticleSempra Defies Shareowners
From Fox News: Sempra Energy (SRE, $SRE) said its board elected Chief Executive Debra L. Reed as its new chairman, succeeding former company CEO Donald E. Felsinger, who is retiring. Ms. Reed, 56 years...
View ArticleKey Changes to Proxy Advisor Policies for 2013
I was going to write-up a short guide to recently announced changes by Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis but after reading a recent Alert from Weil I’ve decided to save time by simply...
View ArticleAFL-CIO Key Votes Survey Results for 2012
Vanguard, Northern Trust, BlackRock and Fidelity scored the lowest among researched funds in supporting AFL-CIO endorsed proxy issues in 2012, according to their 2012 Key Votes Survey. Calvert,...
View ArticleVideo Friday – Double Feature: Church of England & Glass Lewis
I’m taking the day off from writing a real post. Instead, I refer you to Usman Hayat‘s informative interview of Edward Mason, secretary of the Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group...
View ArticleAgency Capitalism: Corrective Measures (Part 2)
This is Part 2 of a post which started out reviewing the important thesis outlined in The Agency Costs of Agency Capitalism: Activist Investors and the Revaluation of Governance Rights by Ronald J....
View ArticleThe AGM Votes are in and the Winner is ….
Guest Post from Stephen Viederman, Fellow, Governance & Accountability Institute, reposted here with the permission of Viederman and Accountability-Central.com. James McRitchie, Publisher of...
View ArticleProxy Advisors Get Tougher
I blogged about this in December (Key Changes to Proxy Advisor Policies for 2013), mainly referring to a recent Alert from Weil. Writing for Alliance Advisors, Shirley Westcott, has added to the mix....
View ArticleGoldman Sachs (GS): Vote for Proxy Access
Goldman Sachs ($GS) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 5/23/2013. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of two funds when I checked on 5/15/2013. I’ll check...
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...
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