Feb 20, 2026 | 2026, Annual Meetings, Featured
Retail Influence on the Rise The 2025 proxy season highlighted a paradox the OPTIMIZER has long noted: retail shareholders are more important than ever, yet remain seriously under-engaged when it comes to actually voting their proxies. At many large-cap companies,...
Feb 18, 2026 | Featured, Proxy, Q4
It’s been 90 years since the Nye family turned its brokerage business, Georgeson & Co., into a “proxy-chasing business” in 1935 – a time when individual investments in stocks had become very big business and voted proxies were very much in demand at Shareholder...
Feb 11, 2026 | Featured, Notice & Access, Q4
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SAVED. BUT NOW, IT DESPERATELY NEEDS A FIX: A “PULL-MODEL” THAT WORKS – AND A RADICAL RE-ORDERING OF REQUIRED INFO Issuers of securities should be sounding big cheers for 25 years of Notice and Access – which has saved tens of billions of dollars...
Feb 11, 2026 | Featured, Proxy, Q4
In our 30+ years of deep involvement in shareholder meetings, proxy voting, proxy contests, shareholder activism, and corporate governance in general, we have NEVER seen an environment as volatile or as consequential as the one corporate issuers will face in 2026....
Feb 11, 2026 | Featured, Proxy, Q4
The Bloomberg Rankings Reveal Some Major Surprises – And Lots Of Surprisingly Missing Names On The Law Firm Side Of Proxy Fights… where, it should be noted, the lawyers are often instrumental in choosing the proxy solicitor… and some old-guard leaders are currently on...
Feb 11, 2026 | Featured, Q4
Senior members of the SEC seem to be hell-bent on a mission to totally demolish the regulatory framework that has been evolving since the Great Depression: As we noted in our last issue, Chairman Paul Atkins is laboring under the incredibly ill-informed idea that the...
Oct 20, 2025 | 2025, Annual Meetings, Featured, Proxy, Q3, Virtual Meetings
In his Keynote Address at the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance’s 25th Anniversary Gala on Oct. 9, 2025. SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins started off on a high note: “I am delighted to discuss one of my top priorities as Chairman, which is to make being a...
Oct 20, 2025 | 2025, Annual Meetings, Featured, Proxy, Q3, Virtual Meetings
Thanks much to our colleagues and friends Pat Tracey and Andy Wilcox, who alerted us to the Mercury Vote website, advising that: “We are an auction marketplace that empowers shareholders to generate extra revenue by selling their unused proxy voting...
Oct 20, 2025 | 2025, Annual Meetings, Featured, Proxy, Q3
It seems that every law firm in the country has been summarizing Exxon Mobil’s attempted vote-getting effort, speculating that others will follow suit and offering pointers on what to watch for and what to do. We, however, as 60+ year observers of actual U.S. proxy...
Oct 20, 2025 | History
We were deeply saddened to learn that Cal Donly - the life-and-business partner of Ellen Philip, who survives him - passed away on October 18th. Everyone who was anyone in the Shareholder Servicing world over the past 60 years knows Cal and Ellen - two of the finest,...
Aug 5, 2025 | Annual Meetings, Compliance & Ethics, Featured, Q2
An April 14 report from the Conference Board (where most Russell 3000 companies had already filed 2025 proxy materials) showed a precipitous drop in Pro-DEI proposals – no big surprise in today’s environment – and a foretaste of what’s to come in 2026 we feel certain....
Aug 5, 2025 | Annual Meetings, Featured, Q2
An ISS analysis of shareholder meetings held from January 1 through June 30 shows a big drop in Shareholder Proposal Submissions for the 2025 Annual Meeting Season: 782 submissions at Russell 3000 companies – down sharply from 906 in ’24 – with nearly a quarter of...
Aug 5, 2025 | Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues, Q2
Yes, we know it’s mid-summer, but now really is the time to start thinking about your 2025 Annual Meeting, while you have a bit of idle time to reflect on what worked well – and not so well in 2025 – both at your company and at other companies like your own – and to...
Apr 23, 2025 | Annual Meetings, Featured
Get the full transcript from the April 2, 2025, webinar hosted by TheCorporateCounsel.net: “Conduct of the Annual Meeting” As corporate governance continues to evolve in response to shifting regulatory landscapes and rising shareholder expectations, now is the time to...
Apr 5, 2025 | 2025, Annual Meetings, Featured, Q1, Virtual Meetings
As the big Spring Shareholder Meeting Season begins we want to renew our warnings that “Big Brother is watching” – and rightly so, we say - to be sure that all shareholders are given a fair chance - not just to listen passively, but to be HEARD at VSMs – AND that they...
Apr 5, 2025 | 2025, Annual Meetings, Featured, Q1, Virtual Meetings
In the run-up to the annual podcast covering “The Conduct of the Annual Meeting,” a prospective attendee wrote in to ask if they could pre-record their entire Meeting, and to answer only pre-recorded questions, saying that their transfer agent (one of the biggest...
Apr 5, 2025 | 2025, Annual Meetings, Featured, Q1, Virtual Meetings
In keeping with our plans to tune in and review more VSMs this year we were happy to attend Apple’s nice (and early, for West-Coasters) Feb. 25th Meeting, held at 8:00 a.m. Pacific time; 11:00 Eastern. Apple is one of our top-two investments – with an amazing...
Feb 3, 2025 | 2025, Activist Investors, Featured, Issues
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...
Feb 3, 2025 | 2025, Featured, Issues
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...
Feb 3, 2025 | 2025, Featured, Issues
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...
Nov 19, 2024 | 2024, Annual Meetings, Q3, Virtual Meetings
“Shareholders promoting both progressive and conservative agendas say companies are increasingly trying to limit their voices at annual shareholder meetings—the one day of the year when boards are required to hear from the people who own their companies,” a recent...
Nov 19, 2024 | 2024, Issues, Q3, Transfer Agents
We wish we could say that we were shocked to read the long list of shocking findings by the SEC against Equiniti Trust Company, formerly known as American Stock Transfer & Trust Company. But readers, we have been very regularly warning transfer agents – and...
Nov 2, 2024 | 2024, Annual Meetings, Issues, Q3
WILL BAD AUDITOR GRADES SPILL OVER TO YOUR AGM? PREPARE NOW, WE SAY We were greatly encouraged by remarks from the recently reorganized PCAOB board leadership promising much greater scrutiny of public company auditors and a much stronger focus on the number of audit...
Nov 2, 2024 | 2024, Issues, Q3
Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to Citi CEO Jane Fraser as she struggles to rein-in the wild and reckless horse that Citi had become after more than a decade of ‘deferred maintenance’ on its key operating systems and their internal controls. But OUCH! As...
Nov 2, 2024 | 2024, Annual Meetings, Issues, Q3
A truly Blue-Ribbon Panel of Experts, Chaired by Broc Romanek, hits the streets just as public companies begin to jumpstart their AGM pre-planning activities and, ideally, to anticipate, and proactively address the most important issues that will be on the minds of...
