Take Ownership of Your Governance: Don’t Wait for Activists to Start the Conversation

Navigating M&A and Shareholder Activism: Key Insights for 2025 Co-Editor Peder Hagberg interviews Bob Marese, President of MacKenzie Partners, on current trends in mergers and acquisitions, shareholder engagement, activism, and effective board governance heading...

Leveling the Playing Field of Corporate and Shareholder Transparency

A Call to Action from Joseph Caruso, CEO, Alliance Advisors Joe Caruso: Over the past few years, there’s been a growing call for greater corporate transparency, especially from government agencies, institutional investors, and proxy advisory firms. But are we really...

Reflections on “Engaging with Investors”

Over the Past 30+ Years – And Advice for Effectively Engaging Now – From Two Pioneers of Good Corporate Governance When we announced the theme for this year’s Special Supplement to the OPTIMIZER—our thirtieth edition—one of our advertisers noted that “thirty years...

Holy Moley! Exxon’s Suit Vs. Former Proponents, Followed By A Three-Page Screed In Their Proxy Statement, Draws Anger – And Two Exempt Solicitations As The AGM Ramps Up. Who’ll Stop The Madness Here?

Initially, we were sort of on board with the lawsuits Exxon filed against two shareholder proponents to ‘teach them a lesson’ to be more thoughtful about filing shareholder proposals. And yes, we are very much in sympathy with the idea that there are way too many...

People: 2019 Q1

George H. Beehler, a longtime printing salesman at Security Bank Note Company – who was lucky enough to retire when stock certificates were still a big business – passed away on March 26 at the age of 92. George was one of the longest-serving members of the old Corporate Transfer Agents Association – and he remained active until fairly recently in its new incarnation as the Shareholder Services Association as well. According to SSA guru Jimmy Smith,

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Big Transformations in the Employee Stock Ownership World… Including A Quick “Who’s Who” Analysis

We literally jerked to attention when we saw the news on page-one of the WSJ that Morgan Stanley is acquiring Solium Capital, Inc. – a Canadian firm “which manages the stock that employees receive as part of their pay”… for a whopping $900 million … “the largest takeover by any Wall Street firm since the [financial industry] crisis.”

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A Few “Early Returns” From the Annual Meeting Front… And Maybe A Late-Breaking Shocker

Let’s start with the potential shocker: Just as we were locking up this issue came news from Vanguard, which is rolling out a new policy to vote in most cases against directors who hold two or more board seats in addition to their own company’s seat…starting now. We haven’t seen firm numbers yet on just how many director candidates will be affected – but we guess there will be a lot.

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