Reaching Out To Investors… When Time Is Of The Essence? And There’s No Quick Solution On Your Shelf
The Optimizer Editor’s Annual Interview With Ellen Philip And Cal Donly Of Ellen Philip Associates
Reaching Out To Investors Via The Proxy Statement
The Optimizer Interviews Dannette Smith, Secretary To The Board Of Unitedhealth Group, Incorporated, The Winner Of Corporate Secretary Magazine’s 2010 Award For Best Proxy Statement
Reaching Out To Institutional Investors
Some Thoughts – And Lots Of Practical Tips – From Steven L. Brown, Director Of Corporate Governance, TIAA-CREF
Laurel Hill Advisory Group
An Interview With Dr. William J. Catacosinos, Chairman Of Laurel Hill Advisory Group, LLC And His Senior Colleagues
Key Industry Organizations Totally Miss The Point, We Say… And Don’T Help The Corporate Cause At All…
And Don’t Help The Corporate Cause At All… In Their Actual And “Model Responses” To Proposed Changes In The “Broker May Vote” Rule… Basically Flicking A Finger At The NYSE And Its Proxy Rule Committee
A First-Hand Report From The Intel “Virtual Annual Meeting”… And A Heads Up On The Broadridge Virtual Meeting In November
Your editor had the honor to serve as the Inspector of Election at Intel’s 2009 annual meeting, the first “virtual annual meeting” ever.
Issuers Get A Stay Of Execution On Direct Proxy Access… But It’s Coming To Our Neighborhood Soon, We Guarantee:
The SEC – which was expected to vote on Direct Access to the corporate proxy machinery for the purpose of nominating director candidates on Nov. 8th, announced in early October that it would delay a vote on the final rules until early 2010 – to be sure that they would “get itright.”
“Small” And “Mid-Sized Transfer Agents” – And A Quick Look At The “Biggies” Too
We’ve been expecting to have at least one really big story about Transfer Agency consolidation for well over six months now. But in the meanwhile, we’ve been amazed at how many questions we’ve been getting from issuers about “small transfer agents”.
“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 .
Everything You Need To Know About Notice & Access… And About E-Proxies Too
We continue to be amazed by the number of corporate citizens – and by the number of their law firms and other advisors too – who are still confused about Notice and Access.
Intel Prepares To Launch The First-Ever “Virtual Annual Meeting” – Featuring On-Line, Real-Time Voting
This is the beginning of a totally new approach to Annual Meetings, and one that will ultimately result in a totally new A-M paradigm, we think.
Should Board Directors Be Engaging Institutional Directors Directly, As The NACD Blue Ribbon Report Recommended? If So, What Are The Important Dos And Don’ts
If you missed the original webcast on this subject, sponsored by The Capital Markets Board, you can hear it on our website
In The Blooper Of The Year, Apple Gets Caught Counting Abstentions As “Votes No” On Say On Pay
It did not take a smart reporter very long to sniff out a problem with the way Apple reported its 2009 voting results – especially with regard to the “widely watched” Say on Pay proposal, which Apple reported had been defeated.
A Quick Primer On Tabulating And Reporting Voting Results
The first commandment when it comes to tabulating and reporting Meeting results is this: “Always prove every item to the Quorum”
Adjourning Your Annual Meeting: Not Having The Authority To Do It Can Be A Death Sentence
Another of our very favorite topics has jumped to the forefront this season: We’ve been warning year after year about the need to be sure that you have the proper authority to adjourn your annual or special meeting…
A Few “Practice Points” On Reporting Results
When announcing results at the meeting, the best practice is to stick tightly to the numbers.
Coping With The Loss Of The Broker Vote …And The Potential 50% Decline In The Individual Investor Vote, If You Fail To Use The N&A Model Wisely
Our Top “Practical Tips” On What To Do… To Head-Off A Potentially Career-Ending Snafu
Coping With The Loss Of The Broker Vote: Our Top-Ten “Strategic Tips” On What You Should Be Doing…. Now
Unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, you know of course that NYSE Rule 452, aka the “broker-may-vote rule”, aka the “ten-day-rule”
Early Returns From The Annual Meeting Front: No Surprise; It’s All About The Money In 2009 Look Out Below… For Falling Directors
For openers, how about 100+ proposals for shareholders to have a “say on pay”?
The 2009 Proxy Season Overview: Much Bad Sailing… But Batten Down The Hatches For Worse Weather In 2010
The season opened with a big loud bang, when Bank of America’s chairman Ken Lewis was stripped of his chairmanship by a binding vote to separate the Chairman and CEO roles.
Investor Access To The Director Nominating And Voting Machinery: A Certainty For 2010?
We came away from the Society’s annual conference almost 100% certain that there would be “proxy access” in time for the 2010 meeting season.
A Few New Developments To Watch That Crossed Our Path This Season
A Delaware court ruled that a binding-bylaw proposal that would prohibit the company from seating any director who failed to achieve a majority vote in an uncontested election had to be included on the ballot at Trico Marine Corporation…
Our Last-Ditch Effort To Prevent The Federalization Of Shareholder Meetings
We Also Urge The SEC To Urgently Fix The Scandalous Defects In Our Old And Badly Broken “Proxy Plumbing” Systems Before Forging Ahead… And Tell Them How To Do It
A Postcard From Post-Recession America
An Interview with Eric van Aalst and Kevin Pezien of CITCO
SEC Proposes New Rules For “Notices” To Foster “Access”: We Tell You… And Them… What You Really Need To Do…
At long last, recognizing that under the current N&A “regime” issuers have lost fully one-half of the votes of individual investors that they’d been getting before N&A – but still insisting there might be “other explanations” for this coincident phenomenon –...
