An Unusual – And Disturbing Trend This Season – Failing To Name The Auditor Up-front – And, For Shame – On Your Proxy Card
Through mid-April we’ve noted at least three instances where the Audit Firm’s name was omitted in both the summary of items on the ballot in the Proxy Statement – and on the Proxy Card itself. This is a totally unacceptable thing to do in our opinion – and makes us...
Here Are The Three “Most Engaging Proxy Materials” From The Two-Dozen “Packages” We Received Through Mid-April
PEPSICO’s ANNUAL REPORT - Tops to date – and one of the two or three most engaging sets of reports over our 30+ years of reviewing proxy materials. Packed FULL of engaging soundbites, like the theme – “Winning with pep+” (which we have been doing for 30+ years) plus...
Big News For Issuers On “Retail Engagement” – Vow Now To Do Better Next Year
Big and important news from Broadridge’s 5th annual CX [Customer Experience, we figured out] and Communications Consumer Insights report, “capturing the responses of 4,000+ consumers across North America regarding their preferences for different communication...
A Last-Minute-Checklist To Assure Your Meeting Security
Your editor-in-chief was pleased to be part of an all-star panel put together by CCR in late March on Conduct of the Annual Meeting, where he offered his Top-Tips to Assure Security at the Annual Meeting, freshly revised in light of the devilishly well-planned and...
Key Risks – And Internal-Control Checkpoints To Check With Current And Potential Service Suppliers – Ranked By Riskiness
Here’s our “Top 5” list of internal-control risks areas - ranked in order of “riskiness” - that deserve an extra level of scrutiny by public companies going into the 2023 proxy season: 1. ABANDONED PROPERTY SERVICES Of all the services where a public company needs to...
The OPTIMIZER’s Top Tips For Vetting Key Suppliers
Start with an overview of key players in their field: Who owns them? How long have they been in business? Where do they seem to rank vs. other players in terms of market share? For smaller players, be sure to pull a D&B report, which may surprise you big-time –...
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...
The Outlook For 2023 AGMs: Our Tips To Assure A Smooth Event… That You Won’t Find Anywhere Else
The vast majority of companies that had virtual-only meetings last year are sticking to them, so demand will be high for the most desirable dates and times. Reserve your preferred date and time slot early – and be sure you have lined up a top Inspector of Elections...
“Pro-Life” Bullies with Bullhorns Are Set to Disrupt AGMs This Season…If They Can
Three “Pro-Life- Activists” who sneaked in and blended in by posing as ‘backstage workers’ at a private meeting venue managed to literally get behind the curtains at a recent Meeting of Shareholders and to burst out behind the company officers on the dais shouting...
Disruption In The Proxy Solicitation Space: League Tables Tell Part Of The Tale – But Many Big Firms Seem To Be “Remaking Themselves” Or “Lost In A Sea Of Rivals” These Days
One-time upstart Okapi Partners has been ranked as the number-one activist proxy solicitor, both in the U.S. and globally in 2022 - for the fourth year in a row - in Bloomberg’s Global Activism Market Review, below. We hasten to point out, as we always do, that the...
Podcast Alert: Annual Meeting Season 2026 — Expert Advice from Carl & Peder Hagberg
Carl and Peder Hagberg of The Shareholder Service OPTIMIZER join Meredith Ervine from TheCorporateCounsel.net to discuss proxy season risks, virtual meetings, and shareholder engagement for 2026.
Listen to hear their insights on this year’s annual meeting season.