Trillium Demonstrates Leadership on Profound SEC Change for Corporate Board Elections
On Wednesday July 1, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took the very important step of voting to eliminate broker discretionary voting for director elections. This rather arcane sounding rule change is actually central to efforts to hold boards of directors more accountable to shareholders and the stakeholders they represent. Until this change, if a broker in possession of a shareholder’s proxy had not received the shareholder’s instruction on how to cast his or her votes for directors, the broker would decide how to cast the vote. Invariably it would be cast in accordance with management’s recommendation – i.e. for …
Chevron Liability in Ecuador Pollution Case Approaches $27 Billion
Court Judgment Expected This Year by Shelley Alpern Five years ago, I had the privilege of getting a firsthand look at the evidence in one of the most important lawsuits being heard anywhere in the world. The exhibits are a number of oily pits and ponds scattered throughout the state of Sucumbios, Ecuador, right in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. The contamination is allegedly the work of Texaco, the first petroleum company to break ground in Ecuador in the early 1970s. The court case is being heard in Lago Agrio, a sad-looking town whose many ramshackle buildings look far …
RiskMetrics calls Open MIC Internet Project "biggest new campaign in the human rights arena for the 2009 U.S. proxy season."
Risk Metrics Group (RMG), the nation’s largest and most influential proxy advisory firm, provides research to some of the world’s largest and most important financial institutions about the environmental and social issues shareholders raise in proxy statements. It’s guidance to large pension funds often determines the fate of shareholder proposals filed by Trillium Asset Management and our fellow shareholder activists. We were, therefore, very pleased when RMG recently wrote a lengthy piece on the Open MIC shareholder initiative describing it as the “biggest new campaign in the human rights arena for the 2009 U.S. proxy season.” The story discusses the …
Increasing Accountability and Democracy
Eliminate Broker Discretionary Voting for the Election of Directors Currently NYSE rules permit brokers to vote on the uncontested election of directors if the beneficial owner has not communicated voting instructions to the broker before the scheduled meeting. In practice this means that the vast majority of the time brokers simply vote with management. This also means that efforts to hold directors responsible for their actions (a goal that is exceptionally critical in today’s economic environment) through withhold vote campaigns are stymied. Fortunately the NYSE has asked the SEC to allow them to change this rule and the SEC is …
‘Say on Pay’ Gathers Steam Heading Into 2009
Are we the only ones wondering why the daily sight of Wall Street and Detroit execs begging for bailouts while making off with millions hasn’t incited rioting in the streets? Consider just one case. Former Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O’Neal walked away with $161 million dollar exit package shortly before the company’s high stake bets in the mortgage market unraveled, revealing losses that exceeded all the profits the firm had earned over the past 20 years. Investors tallied their losses, taxpayers subsidized the takeover of Merrill, and thousands of employees joined the ranks of the unemployed. How did we arrive …
Trillium joins ProxyDemocracy's list of "Respected Shareholder Activists"
Today Trillium Asset Management Corporation is pleased to announce that it has joined ProxyDemocracy’s list of “Respected Shareholder Activists” and has made its intended proxy votes available in advance of company annual meetings. ProxyDemocracy aggregates proxy voting data and provides tools to help investors put their voting power to use. Joining in this effort is consistent with our mission to explore and develop all possible means of social progress offered by the capital markets, and educate other concerned investors in their use; and to support organizations working to build a just society and a better world. To see Trillium Asset …
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