Trillium Featured in The Onion

August 15, 2018 // Boston, MA
The satirical news website, The Onion, recently honored Trillium Asset Management and its CEO, Matt Patsky, by making us the subject of one of its latest articles.  All of us at Trillium had a good laugh and appreciate The Onion’s humorous take on Trillium and our work.
In the article, Matt colorfully berated Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg with many expletives about the company’s performance. While Matt most definitely did not say any of the things in the article, Trillium recently did file a shareholder proposal at Facebook urging the company to make the Chair of the Board an independent director. Trillium is asking Mark Zuckerberg to relinquish his role as Chairman because it will be good for the company, its shareholders, and its social impact. Facebook needs to make this change as it goes through a transition – as it addresses Russian meddling in U.S. elections; sharing personal data of 87 million users with Cambridge Analytica; proliferating fake news; and propagating violence in Asia. Mark Zuckerberg regularly says “We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility”. Having an independent board chairperson will help the company take that broad view and move beyond the whack-a-mole approach.
Trillium, in addition to integrating ESG factors into the investment process, has a robust shareholder advocacy team that works hard every day to improve the environmental, social, and governance policies and impacts of the companies in our strategies. Hopefully, in the future companies will learn to manage ESG issues before they end up targeted by Trillium and the Onion.
Contact: Lisa MacKinnon, Investment Manager, lmackinnon@trilliuminvest.com

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Important Disclosure: The information provided is not a recommendation to buy or sell the securities mentioned. The securities were selected on an objective basis for illustrative purposes and do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended. It should not be assumed that investments in the securities have been or will be profitable. The securities do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended for advisory clients.