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 | 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...
Jul 30, 2024 | Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues, Q2, Virtual Meetings
INVESTORS DON’T CARE ABOUT “TOO-HIGH CEO PAY” – At least as long as they themselves are in the black – witness the strong support the move to have shareholders ratify Elon Musk’s massive award of options racked up after a Delaware judge ruled it was wrongly awarded by...
Jul 30, 2024 | 2024, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues, Q2, Virtual Meetings
As most readers know, we think, our ‘sister company’ – CT Hagberg LLC - fields a team of 45 expert Inspectors of Election who, through July, will have served at well over 500 companies. This – plus your two editors’ own stock portfolios – causes us to monitor over 700...
Jul 30, 2024 | 2024, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues, Q2, Virtual Meetings
The Top-Two 2024 VMs – A Two-Way Tie Between Citi And Verizon AT CITIGROUP – A WELL-RUN, HIGHLY ENGAGING AND INFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE…We were especially anxious to tune in the Citigroup VSM this year because we are huge fans of CEO Jane Fraser and continue to bet that...
May 2, 2024 | 2024, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues, Q1
The Walt Disney Company released the official vote counts on April 4th from its 2024 meeting of shareholders held April 3rd - much faster than it usually takes to do so, we were happy to note - where they said “investors decisively defeated” the campaign by activist...
Feb 9, 2024 | 2023, 2023 Q4, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues
The 2024 Annual Meeting Season and the Big-Company Proxy Fight Season is off to a roaring start – with Nelson Peltz of Trian back yet again at Disney with a big new backer, major investor Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, whom Disney fired not so long aga… And even before...
Oct 19, 2023 | 2023 Q4, Annual Meetings, Featured, Investor Relations, Issues, Virtual Meetings
©2023 by Carl T. Hagberg and Associates. All rights reserved. This publication may not be copied or made available to readers over the Internet without the express permission of the copyright holder. (The letter below can be generic - or personalized with issuers’...
Oct 19, 2023 | 2023 Q3, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues
Expectations of directors are increasing. Fewer directors stood for election this past season (23,829) than in 2022 season, but more failed to attain majority support (654) than at any time in the last 5 years. Support has declined for Say-on-Pay. 131 say-on-pay...
Jul 28, 2023 | 2023, 2023 Q2, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues
The 2023 Shareholder Meeting Season to date has been “one for the books” for sure – and we are happy to report that most of the predictions and early warnings we posted in late 2022 and early 2023 were very much on the money: While there has been a modest return to...
Jul 28, 2023 | 2023, Annual Meetings, Issues
In our last issue we recommended that readers take time to review what we found to be the “Most Engaging” Shareholder Meeting Materials of the 70-odd sets we reviewed with care - and we promised to disclose the MOST CONVINCING EXAMPLES OF CORPORATE RESPONSES to...
Jul 28, 2023 | 2023, 2023 Q2, Annual Meetings, Issues
As noted here earlier, there was a very noticeable decline in the number of companies that had to adjourn their Shareholder Meetings in first-half 2023 for lack of a quorum on the appointed date and time. At two of the Meetings where our Inspectors of Election served,...
Apr 27, 2023 | 2023, 2023 Q1, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues, Proxy
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...
Apr 27, 2023 | 2023, 2023 Q1, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues, Proxy
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...
Apr 27, 2023 | 2023, 2023 Q1, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues
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...
Apr 27, 2023 | 2023, 2023 Q1, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues
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...
Feb 6, 2023 | 2022, 2022 Q4, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues, Virtual Meetings
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...
Feb 6, 2023 | 2022, 2022 Q4, Annual Meetings, Featured
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...
Oct 17, 2022 | 2022, 2022 Q3, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues, Proxy
Governance guru Jim McRitchie’s post on his Corp.Gov.com website - with his review of a survey on 31 virtual annual meeting practices conducted by the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility - was amplified considerably by a John Jenkins post on...
Oct 17, 2022 | 2022, 2022 Q3, Annual Meetings, Featured, Transfer Agents
But Wait! Shocking Deficiencies In Internal Controls Are Set To Fuel Even More, We Guarantee Over the past three months your editor-in-chief has had three assignments as an expert witness/expert consultant - all involving big stock market losses - and all with the...
Aug 1, 2022 | 2022, 2022 Q2, Annual Meetings, Best & Worst Practices, Featured, Issues
May used to be the “old April” for shareholder meetings - but June tied with May this year in our own count, with June meetings rising an astonishing 32.5% vs. 2021. Readers have been asking, “What’s going on here, and why? Ten years or so ago, the end of April marked...
Aug 1, 2022 | 2022, 2022 Q2, Annual Meetings, Best & Worst Practices, Featured, Issues
“Why do we need to have a Master Ballot for our Shareholder Meetings - and what exactly does it do?” This has been the most common question our Inspectors of Election have been hearing from clients by far - along with an intimately related and equally important one;...
Aug 1, 2022 | 2022, 2022 Q2, Annual Meetings, Best & Worst Practices, Featured, Issues
Over the last two years a mini-debate broke out sporadically over LinkedIn on how best to manage the opening and closing of the polls. Many activist investors felt that they should remain open until after the general Q&A period - and ideally, until the very end of...
Aug 1, 2022 | 2022, 2022 Q2, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues
The problem of “meeting congestion” on the busiest meeting dates continues to be a growing issue for issuers - and for their key suppliers: We predict that issuers will increasingly have to vie for favorable meeting dates and times, since at best, there are only eight...
Jul 28, 2022 | 2022, 2022 Q2, Annual Meetings, Featured, Issues, Virtual Meetings
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...
