Morrow Sodali Celebrates 50 Year Anniversary By “Building Together”
The OPTIMIZER interviews Adam Frederick, Global President, Bill Ultan, Managing Director – Corporate Governance and Greg Reppucci, Senior Director– Sustainability & Corporate Governance Through a combination of savvy strategic acquisitions and a continued focus on...Will ‘Big Brother’ Really Be Looking At Your VSMs This Year?
We have been reporting on comments from ISS - and from several large investors as well - that they would be monitoring Virtual Shareholder Meetings to assure that shareholders will have a meaningful chance to ask questions - and to “engage in a dialogue with...When Pigs Fly
Ever hear this old expression, to indicate a totally unlikely event? Well damned, if pigs aren’t indeed flying high - on the proxy voting front! More kudos to Liz Dunshee for reporting that activist investor Carl Icahn’s fight for the rights of pregnant pigs not to be...The 2022 Season Starts Out With A Big Bang
As Liz Dunshee reported in her March 13 blog, “This voting outcome arrives at the same time that the UN Environment Assembly has agreed to negotiate a legally binding treaty to tackle plastics, which many are calling the next ‘Paris Accord.’ That comparison is...Are VSMs “On The Wane” As ISS Asserts?
Not by our reckoning: After reading the ISS assessment in their quarterly update, we went straight to the books - and to our own records of 2022 Shareholder Meetings scheduled as of April 1, 2022. That day, we had 480 meetings booked where our team of Inspectors were...Revised Rules of Conduct For In-Person, Virtual-Only and Hybrid Meetings of Shareholders
XYZ Corporation welcomes you to its __th Annual Meeting of Stockholders. In fairness to all stockholders in attendance, and in order to provide stockholders an opportunity to be heard – and in the interest of conducting an orderly meeting, within a reasonable time...A Sample “Run-Of-Show” For A Satisfying And Successful VSM
With our comments on the most important best practices to adopt - and on bad and worst practices to avoid: Twenty minutes prior to the Meeting time there should be a welcoming message on the Meeting site - with a visually pleasing background, easy-to-read typefaces...Our Shareholder Meeting Playbook For 2022
First and most important, it should be a fully-written-out and carefully annotated script - ideally color-coded - with large, easy-to-read type and clearly written cues for all participants - with color-coded speakers’ and technicians’ names - and with easily accessed...Annual Meeting Advice: PICKING THE PROPER LOCATION & MEETING FORMAT
Now that you’re done with the preliminary homework of scoping, mapping and analyzing your shareholder demographics, the next step is to review your meeting options with regard to “location” - and to decide on a venue, an agenda, and the technological tools - including...Our Detailed Playbook For A Top-Flight Shareholder Meeting In 2022
In light of the hundreds and hundreds of shareholder meetings your editors have attended - and especially in light of the many meeting critiques we have published, covering both the best - and the worst meetings - and the many blunders and bloopers we’ve seen - we...A Quick Look At Retail Investor Loyalty Programs – And Other Incentives To Get Out The Retail Vote
In the last few weeks of 2021 we had inquiries from three readers on this subject - one of our favorite ones - so we placed calls to a few colleagues who’ve had success here, and reviewed some of our own past articles for other ideas: Peggy Foran, who pioneered the...Covid Boosts “Virtual Inspections Of Elections” A Big Potential Money-Saver… Our Tips On Acting Smartly
In 2021 - thanks largely to sensible Covid-era precautions - U.S. companies overwhelmingly relied on “Virtual” attendance of Inspectors of Election - and auditor representatives too - at their shareholder meetings. Our sister-company, CT Hagberg LLC, logged fewer than...In 2022 Issuers Will Have To Fight Harder Than Ever For The More-Important-Than-Ever Retail Vote
This year, The OPTIMIZER believes that the battle for the management-friendly retail investor vote will be harder to win than ever before - even while the retail vote will be a bigger decider than ever before. Here’s why: Over the past 18 months more than 22 million...The Outlook – And Our Advice – For In-Person, VSM And Hybrid Meetings In 2022… Straight From The Frontlines
The number-one question we’re being asked as readers gear up for the 2022 Meeting Season, and as Covid cases began rising again, is “What are most companies planning to do this year?” So far, as our sister-company, that will provide Inspectors of Election at over 500...A Better Way To Conduct a Proxy Fight: Save Time and Money… and Get The Results Right the First Time
An open letter to issuers, proxy solicitors and advisors and their legal counsel: Dear friends and colleagues; We are pleased and excited to announce that CT Hagberg LLC is now prepared to offer an outstanding roster of Independent Inspectors of Election who stand...ESG Voting Far Exceeds Our Own High Expectations For 2021
Our 2021 Special Supplement, available only at OptimizerOnline.com, featured nearly a dozen interviews with prominent shareholder meeting observers - all of whom - including us - predicted record-breaking success for ESG proposals this season - although we’re not sure...Huge News – Number-Two Transfer Agent EQ Sells To VC Buyer: Number Three Quickly Follows: The ‘End Game’ For The Overcrowded T-A Biz At Long Last?
In something of a bombshell announcement, Equiniti Group PLC - the UK-based owner of US Transfer Agent EQ - announced on May 27 that it has agreed to sell its entire portfolio of business to Earth Private Holdings, LTD - a newly-formed company owned by funds managed...The Best, Worst and a few So-So VSMs of 2021 to Learn From
To get a good idea of how to run a well-run, shareholder-friendly and useful VSM, start, we say, with our run-throughs of this year’s VSMs of last year’s winners - UnitedHealth Group and UPS… UNITEDHEALTH GROUP’s Board Secretary Dannette Smith once again guided us...VSMs – At A Tipping Point We Say – Our Predictions For 2022
Now that the U.S. economy is ready to open up for public meetings once again - and with plans for the 2022 Shareholder Meeting Season already needing to be considered - there has been a lot of speculation on the ultimate fate of Virtual Shareholder Meetings. Here are...VSM Service Providers Enhance Platforms To Improve Access For Street-Name Holders
Good news: The top-four VSM service providers - Broadridge, Computershare, EQ and Mediant - worked together as a sub-committee of the “End-to-End Vote Confirmation Committee” - and, as we’d predicted they would, they have come up with ways to make it easier and surer...VSMs Come On Strong As Preferred 2021 Meeting Venues
As the Covid pandemic continues to make in-person shareholder meetings a poor choice for most widely-held companies, most of last year’s VSM users - and a large number of companies that used “strong keep-away rules” last year instead - have been lining up extra early,...Give Shareholders a Premier Virtual Meeting Experience – SSA Webinar
Join Carl Hagberg from Carl T. Hagberg and Associates, John Kim from General Motors and Rick Hansen from HP on Thursday, March 4 at 2 p.m. EST for this practical exploration of delivering a virtual annual meeting that exceeds shareholder expectations.
Here’s Another Useful Development To Smooth The Way At Your VSM: IROs Finally Get A Prime Seat At The AGM Table
One of the most interesting - and encouraging - and useful developments with regard to VSMs - has been the fast-growing importance of the corporate Investor Relations staff - both in terms of preparing for the Meeting, and often, in playing a significant on-air role...The Biggest VSM Blooper To Avoid: Lost Connectivity Here’s How To Get Set For 2021 – And To Prepare For The Worst Things That Can Happen With Your Meeting Technology
We have had many decidedly up and down experiences listening to the all-too-numerous webinars on VSMs of late where the guidance was flatly wrong, or important facts were omitted: Most notably on what to do if you lose “connectivity” during the course of your...
