Rosanna Weaver of As You Sow reports on the hidden excesses of CEO Brian Goldner’s pay package at Hasbro. We note the members of the Hasbro compensation committee: Edward M. Philip, Kenneth A. Bronfin, Sir Crispin Davis, Lisa Gersh, Linda K. Zecher. While the reported compensation of Chairman and CEO Brian Goldner does not look…
Fossil Fuel Subsidies Cost U.S. More than Defense Budget: IMF Report – Rolling Stone
It is vital for investors to be aware of these subsidies, which distort traditional reporting of risk and return. The United States has spent more subsidizing fossil fuels in recent years than it has on defense spending, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF found that direct and indirect subsidies…
Illinois Takes Steps Toward Adopting a California-Like Board Diversity Bill
Some of Illinois’ largest companies would have to take a critical look at who’s calling the shots in their boardrooms if a bill making its way through Springfield becomes reality. The legislation, which narrowly passed the House last month, would require any publicly traded company with an Illinois headquarters to have at least one woman…
Letter to Senator Mark Warner About Regulation of Proxy Advisors
VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow wrote the attached letter to Senator Mark Warner about the Senate hearing on proxy advisors. Senator Mark Warner proxy issues may 2019
Despite SEC Action, Shareholders Push ExxonMobil for Progress on Climate Change
They can run, but they can’t hide. Efforts by ExxonMobil to squelch shareholder initiatives on climate change have led to escalation, including a high-visibility call to withhold votes for the nominees for the company’s board. Directors at Exxon Mobil Corp. are facing a withhold campaign from two institutional shareholders alleging the energy company has failed…
SEC proposes eliminating auditor checks on controls at low-revenue biotechs – MarketWatch
As journalist Francine McKenna points out, this proposal is the result of massive lobbying money spent by the industry, which wants to free itself from the exact rules that were adopted following the Enron-era accounting disasters. These rules not only prevented similar problems, but they were crucial for establishing the credibility and stability of the…
Catholic Shareholder Activists Challenge Private Prison System | Sojourners
A shareholder proposal from a Catholic group has led to an agreement from the management and board of a corporation that operates private prisons. But the proponents are not sure how significant that agreement will be. These findings were detailed in “Proposal 4” on the proxy statement that GEO published ahead of the shareholders meeting….
Climate change has U.S. fund managers adjusting agriculture investments – Reuters
After historic floods devastated Midwestern agricultural states this spring, some fund managers are evaluating how climate change will affect the long-term value of companies that make or sell products ranging from tractors to fertilizer. The issue is not simply the unpredictability of weather. Instead, fund managers say, they are struggling to model how extreme weather…
Opioid-maker CEO convicted of racketeering for bribing doctors to prescribe addictive painkiller.
This is an enormously important development and underscores the crucial role that investors can play in making sure that incentive compensation and other elements of risk management are aligned with long-term, sustainable returns. A federal jury on Thursday found the top executives of pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics guilty of criminal racketeering for orchestrating an elaborate…
Can the Facebook CEO Also Oversee Privacy Compliance? NO.
Let’s be clear about this: the CEO and the compliance officer should not be the same person, especially when the government has had to come back for a second time after the terms of the first settlement agreement were almost immediately violated. The Federal Trade Commission is negotiating a settlement with Facebook that would create…
