Trillium’s Executive Diversity Proposal at Newell Brands Receives Majority Vote
May 14, 2019 // Boston, MA: During the Newell Brand’s (NASDAQ: NWL) May 7th annual meeting, shareholders sent a strong message to the board to prioritize C-Suite diversity when Trillium’s shareholder proposal on executive diversity received a 56.6% vote.
This record high vote, came the same week that investors and members of The Thirty Percent Coalition, sent a letter to the board urging them to publicly commit to creating a diverse pool of candidates when selecting a new Chief Executive Officer later this quarter.
Following severe criticism leveled at CEO Michael Polk by activist investor Carl Icahn, the company announced in March that Polk would be leaving at the end of June.
“The board must respond to this overwhelming call for accountability and diversity” said Vice President Brianna Murphy, “With attention focused on who will be Newell’s next CEO and investors demanding a more diverse C-Suite, the moment for the board to step up is now.”
The shareholder proposal asked Newell Brands to provide an assessment of the current state of its executive leadership team diversity and its plan to make the company’s executive leadership team more diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender.
This proposal’s majority vote sends a very strong signal to Newell Brand’s board and management that its shareholders value diversity and expect the Company to address the lack of diversity on the executive team in a meaningful way.
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For more information: Brianna Murphy, Trillium Asset Management, 617-532-6662, bmurphy[at]trilliuminvest.com
Important Disclosure: This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities mentioned. It should not be assumed that investments in such securities have been or will be profitable. The specific securities were selected on an objective basis and do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended for advisory clients.
