Corporate Governance

Washington, DC – After peaking in 1996 at more than 8,000 companies, the number of domestic US-listed public companies traded on major US exchanges...

Recent articles and reviews seem to be drawing more attention to a rising concern for universities and the fossil fuel companies that continue to...

This will ensure that energy and aerospace/defense sectors continue to attract the necessary investment and financing needed to guard global economic growth and national security.

The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance publishes a report, Analysis of Proxy Advisors’ Recommendations During the 2021 Proxy Season, by Kyle Isakower,...

In “Third Point blasts Shell’s efforts to walk the green tightrope” (Opinion, November 4) Brooke Masters has delivered the critical messages we will need...

Environmental, Social, and Governance - ESG – has been growing in prominence as its application becomes essential to investor decisions and for businesses throughout the world...

President-elect Joe Biden has made clear that climate change policy will be a centerpiece of his administration. He has pledged to return the U.S....

Milton Friedman’s admonition 50 years ago that the modern corporation should maximize shareholder value remains controversial. We argue that under certain broad assumptions, the...

The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance publishes an ACCF analysis of Proxy Advisors

While most of the details have now been confirmed, there remains debate over a company’s ability to review and respond to proxy advisors’ reports, as well as the practice of “robo-voting”, where certain investors are automatically following proxy firms’ guidance without doing their own due diligence.

Last year, a report commissioned by the American Council for Capital Formation, a non-profit, found 139 purported “proxy adviser errors” across 94 different companies. But in a letter to the SEC last month, the CII said that when it delved into the ACCF report, it found that “most of the claimed errors were actually disagreements on analysis and methodologies.”

Studies have found that the two firms can swing 20% of votes in proxy elections. An American Council for Capital Formation review last year found that 175 asset managers with $5 trillion of assets voted with ISS recommendations 95% of the time. Activist hedge-fund investors often enlist the proxy firms to shake up management, for better or worse.

Proxy advisory firms have come under increasing scrutiny in recent months for the disproportionate influence they have over shareholder votes at America’s public companies....

a 2016 report by the American Council for Capital Formation found that “environmental-related investments comprised four of its nine worst performing private equity funds last year, accounting for more than $600 million in committed capital.” Focusing on ethereal matters makes it harder for CalPERS to dig out of its hole, something that’s essential even though taxpayers are the ultimate backers of all California public pensions.

A report commissioned by the American Council for Capital Formation, a think-tank, last year found that almost a fifth of votes at annual meetings were cast within three days of an adverse recommendation by a proxy adviser, suggesting that many asset managers automatically follow proxy advisory firms.

Corporate Climate Coups Averted Exxon and Chevron shareholders vote to stay in business. The New York State Common Retirement Fund and the Church of England endowment...