Insights on some of the most important tools and skill-sets that public companies need to have at the ready as we head into the 2017 proxy season…
Interview with Bruce Goldfarb, President & CEO of Okapi Partners
Improve Your Retail Vote
Interview with Ellen Philip, ELLEN PHILIP Associates The Optimizer’s Editor In Chief Interviews Ellen Philip of Ellen Philip Associates “Among the first things that issuers need to do this year, is to step back a bit, take a hard, fresh, numbers-oriented look at...Our Top Takeaways From The Spring 2015 Annual Meeting Season
The biggest takeaway, by far, is how much smooth sailing those proxy access proposals with 3% ownership and 3-year holding periods encountered… pretty much as we predicted.
The Best, The Worst… And The Weirdest Annual Meeting Developments We Saw This Spring
Let’s lead off on a high note, with some of the best meetings your editor attended – and where there were some nice innovations worth passing along:
Our Promised Checklist Of The Best Practices To Gear Up Early For Your Annual Meeting of Shareholders
For the majority of our readers, their annual meetings are six months or more away as we write this…
Holy Land Priciples Seem Cool But Generate Lots Of Heat At Shareholder Meetings: Coming Soon To 500+ Companies
Nine shareholder resolutions will come to a vote in 2016 on The Holy Land Principles – “an 8-point corporate code of conduct for American companies doing business in Israel-Palestine” according to a press release signed by the fiery Irish-American priest and preacher, Father Sean Mc Manus.
Some Bests (Microsoft, Chevron And Hasbro) And Worsts (“The VWAPS Of G-E”) On The 2015 Shareholder Engagement And Meeting Materials Scenes
Regular readers are well aware, we hope, of our frustration with the overall presentations of shareholder meeting and voting materials over the web.
Activists And Other “Financial Engineers” Drive M&A And Restructuring Acivities To Alltime Highs As We Get Set For The 2016 Annual Meeting Season
An all-time record number of “deals” were announced in 2015 – falling just shy of the $5 trillion mark, at $4.7 trillion.
Major Shockers Rock The Governance World
Big After-Shocks To Come, And A Major “Raising Of The Bars” Across The Board, We Predict… So Get Ready We love to crow about our long record of predicting “the next big thing in the corporate governance world” - but you sure don’t need a crystal ball this fall to know...Have You Carelessly “Stratified-Out” Your Most Loyal Voters?
Long-term readers will recall, we hope, our many articles on “The Best and Worst Annual Meeting Materials to Cross Our Desk” each year – many of which inspired readers to do better, we were told – many of which engendered hearty belly-laughs – and some of which inspired pure pity, for the poor fools who’d fouled up badly.
The Chairman’s “Briefing Book”: Time For A New Look
Corporate Secretaries, meeting planners, IRO folks andothergovernanceprofessionalsaskabout Annual Meeting Briefing-Book practices at virtually every conference on such matters we’ve ever attended.
Here’s Another Sea-Change Re: “Social” And “Sustainability” Proposals: It’s Not “Just About The Nuns” Anymore
In late March, your editor attended a dinner meeting where a very, very lively discussion of the newest and “hottest topics” that attendees feel are out there on the Annual Meeting front super- charged the entire evening.
Early Returns From The Annual Meeting Front: Spring-Season Has Just Begun – And Ill-Winds Are Blowing
Pity poor Citi – whose top management team – and board – were taken totally by surprise when the Fed refused to allow Citi to increase the quarterly dividend from a measly penny a share and to buy back shares to prop up the stock – as everyone, including the investor community, was confidently expecting – and where the bombshell dropped just a few weeks before Citi’s annual meeting.
Focusing On Employee, Officer And Director Votes
Getting Out The “Employee Vote”… Including Votes From Officers… And Directors…
Annual Meeting Security
Our Top 10 Tips For A Safe And Orderly Meeting
Broadridge On Retail Voting
A Deciding Factor In Close Elections
Our Top-Three 2014 Annual Meeting Horror Stories
Signs Of The Times, To Note With Care, We Say
Still Another Sea-Change This Season: Four Companies Sue Gadfly John Chevedden After The SEC Refuses To Grant ‘No-Action Letters’… Prompting Fast And Furious Reactions By Activist Investors
More ill-winds seem to be sweeping the streets in the run-up to the spring meeting season: So far this year, four well-known companies have sued gadfly John Chevedden, seeking to block his non-binding proposals from coming to a vote: EMC Corp., Express Scripts Holding Co., Omnicom Group, Inc. and Chipotle Mexican Grill.
Overview Of The 2014 Annual Meeting Season
A Quick Overview Of The Spring 2014 Annual Meeting Season: “The Year Of The Associates”… And Several Scary Instances Of Investors ‘Using The Clock’ To Take Companies By Surprise… And Oops… Hostile Takeover Attempts Are Back
Proxy Fights: Our Top 10 Tips For Coping Effectively
What Every Public Company Need To Know And Do If Activists “Reach Out To Them”.
Activist Investors, Shareholder Proponents, Gadflies And Other Would-Be Speakers At Shareholder Meetings
Our Top 10 Tips For Dealing With Them
Re-Energizing Your Retail Investor Voters
Every year for at least the past five years we have been trying to highlight some of the many cases we see each year – including most of our annual “Horror Stories”
How To Cope With The New Activism?
Advice From Bill Fiske of Georgeson, Bruce Goldfarb of Okapi Partners, Tom Germinario of D.F. King, Michael Mackey of Alliance Advisors, Ron Schneider of RR Donnelley and Artie Regan of Regan & Associates.
What Is The Tri-State Coalition? What Are Its Goals?
Interview With Sister Patricia A. Daly, OP Executive Director, Tri-State Coalition
What Is “Sustainable Investment” And The Activist Game Plan
Interview With Heidi Welsh Of Sustainable Investments Institute
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.