The Clash of the Hesters

We were startled to read the impassioned and rather impetuous - and basically fact-free remarks - on the ESG scene by SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, speaking before the American Enterprise Institute - analogizing the trend toward branding company ESG standards as “good’ or “bad” to the shunning and shaming meted out to “that other famous Hester” - Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic, The Scarlet Letter:

“We are seeing a similar scarlet letter phenomenon in today’s modern, but no less flawed world. In these remarks, I will focus specifically on the way in which corporations are being assessed according to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors. Here too we see labeling based on incomplete information, public shaming, and shunning wrapped in moral rhetoric preached with cold-hearted, self-righteous oblivion to the consequences, which ultimately fall on real people. In our purportedly enlightened era, we pin scarlet letters on allegedly offending corporations without bothering much about facts and circumstances and seemingly without caring about the unwarranted harm such labeling can engender. After all, naming and shaming corporate villains is fun, trendy, and profitable.”

Gee, Hester, who are these bad people? And hey! We don’t get the analogy at all: Hester Prynne knew the law, and that she was breaking it, and knew the punishment too if she was to get caught. The only “injustice” we see here is that the other adulterer got off scot-free. We Google’d her up, just to check our own recollections, and here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia’s crib-notes: “The early chapters of the book suggest that, prior to her marriage, Hester was a strong-willed and impetuous young woman…(Hmm…Sounds kind of familiar, no?)…She remembers her parents as loving guides who frequently had to restrain her incautious behavior…But it is what happens after Hester’s affair that makes her into the woman with whom the reader is familiar. Shamed and alienated from the rest of the community, Hester becomes contemplative. She speculates on human nature, social organization, and larger moral questions.” Gosh, Hester II, this sounds like a good thing to do. And it DOES seem, to us at least, to take “naming and shaming” to reform bad corporate behaviors.

What a joy to have received an e-mail with a question on proxy-voting and an update from Stanley Siekierski, Vice President and a Senior Relationship Manager at AST: “As you can see, I am still working in Stock Transfer. February 2019 was my 54th year working in the industry.” Stan started in February, 1965 - at the height of the industry’s paperwork crisis - in Marine Midland Bank’s stock transfer unit - “drawn by the magic word to a newlywed and young father…OVERTIME. In the mid-1960s through the early 1970s I worked 40 hours of overtime per week.” (!!) Stan worked there through the 1971 joint-venture with Bradford National until 1983, when, with Bradford faltering and Manny Hanny zooming, he came to Manufacturers Hanover Trust as a relationship manager superstar. He stayed on through the “Chemical Mellon” and BoNY-Mellon ventures - and through the sale to Computershare in Dec. 2011. In 2013 he was recruited by AST - by Mike Nespoli, his old boss at MHT and successors - and another industry super-star. “I will be 74 years of age in August and commute [to Brooklyn] each day, to and from Wappingers Falls, NY where I have been residing for most of my career.” Hats off and all best wishes to Stan! And we can say from long personal experience that ANY public company would be super-lucky to have him as their relationship manager!