History
Welcome to our History section, which we hope you will enjoy. Our long-term goal is to record all of the most important historical developments in the securities industry - and in the shareholder relations and shareholder servicing business - and in the corporate governance world too….from 1960 through the present…We also hope to provide a few funny stories, that will give you a laugh or two..
We welcome your feedback - and we would especially welcome any stories, personal recollections, photos or other memorabilia that readers may wish to share and to record on this site. So please feel free to contact either of the editors about this.
A word about the editor-in-chief: Your editor has been involved in the securities industry- and in the corporate governance movement since 1960 - before we had computers, much less the world-wide-web. He lived through the “paperwork crisis” of the 1960’s, which nearly brought the securities industry to its knees. He played a “supporting role” in the development of securities depositories. He has watched the growth and development of shareholder activism from its earliest days, and has observed and interacted with most of the actors too - up front and personal - during hundreds and hundreds of shareholder meetings, including dozens and dozens of knockdown drag-out proxy fights. He’s witnessed three market crashes - and two ‘flash-crashes” - and fully expects that there will be more to come.
Tim Smith – “The Lion of Responsible Investing”
Tim Smith, who began his career in the early 1970s at the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) – has retired from the Boston Trust Walden Company at year-end 2022, where he’d worked for over 20 years. But - great news, and no big surprise to us - in...
A History of the Corporate Governance Movement – As Illustrated by OPTIMIZER Magazine Cover Art – from 1997-2008
We have been promising ourselves we’d do this lookback for several years now - partly to show off some of our favorite covers, by our amazing cover-artist Guy Dorian, who did our first full-color cover in 1999 and every one since - but mainly because the covers...
More Fascinating Materials for the Evelyn Y. Davis File
Following the article for our History File on the notorious EYD, a good friend and former colleague, Stan Siekierski of AST - who is, we believe, the longest-serving person in the Stock Transfer business ever - sent us a rare copy of Evelyn’s HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS...
The Long and Sometimes Checkered Past of the Proxy Solicitation Business… An Article for Our History File, with Several Lessons Worth Learning
Following the announcement that EQ, the relatively new owners of Wells Fargo Shareholder Services was entering the proxy solicitation business, our good friend, loyal reader and fellow history lover Michael Mackey, President of Alliance Advisors, sent us an outline of the many comings and goings there have been in this fascinating and hotly contested space.
Evelyn Y. Davis: Gadfly Extraordinaire and Self-Styled “Queen of the Corporate Jungle” Passes Away on November 30, 2018 at the Age of 88
One of the most complex, contentious, egotistical, infuriating and relentless people – and in many ways one of the saddest people on the corporate scene – due, perhaps, to her terrible experiences as a Holocaust survivor, which were rarely mentioned until late in her life…
The Unforgettable Wilma Soss
The first person ever to demand that directors put women on their boards Wilma Porter Soss (b. March, 1900 in San Francisco, d. Oct. 1986 in Brooklyn) was one of the most colorful, persistent and totally unforgettable people ever to storm an Annual Shareholder...
The Original “Shareholder Activists” and the Founders of the Modern Corporate Governance Movement
Your editor-in-chief was fortunate to have been a witness to dozens and dozens of ‘performances’ by the Gilbert brothers at shareholder meetings, where he came to know them both.
Transfer Agent Pays An Extra Nickel To Every Shareholder
Transfer Agent Pays An Extra Five-Cents Per Share To Every Stockholder Of A Major Us Company: 158 Million Nickels Too Many! We are hoping that this headline will grab your attention and impel you to read on, and will maybe give you a jolt of adrenaline, and a feel for...
Corporate Governance: A 20 Year Overview
A Quick Look-Back At “Shareholder Service”, “Shareholder Relations” - And The Securities Industry As A Whole Over 20 Fast-Changing Years – All Leading Up To Today’s “Glorious Days Of The Corporate Governance Movement” Your editor found it almost hard to believe that...
Unclaimed Property And The Real James Brown
“Ah Feel Gooood!” – Finding The Real James Brown, And Reuniting Him With Almost A Half-Million Dollars In Unclaimed Property…A Nifty Story – And One That’s Still Contains A Valuable Takeaway On Abandoned Property
How Independent Inspectors Of Election Came To Be…
With Special Thanks To Mister Smith… And Mister Jones. Another Fun Story For Our “History” Section.
Tales From The Crypt
Horror Stories About The Perils Of Holding Abandoned Property From The Optimizer’s Story Vault… All Of Them Absolutely True.
“The Noughties”
As Y2k09 came to an end, it was quite an unpleasant shock for boosters of long-term investing like us to realize that for most individual investors – especially those who faithfully followed a “buy and hold” approach – the entire decade of the 2000s came to naught…and to NOUGHT – to a big fat zero .
The Paperwork Crisis
Former DTC Chairman and CEO William F. Jaenike writes about…
Harry Of Hanover Square, And What We Can And Should Learn From Him Today
The SSA – And We – honor Harry Poulakakos –Owner Of the World-Famous Harry’s Bar Of Hanover Square… “Wall Street’s Favorite Watering Hole” For Over 36 Years. What Valuable Lessons There Are To Be Learned Here!