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As the EU announces CSRD shake-up, our poll shows most companies aren’t ready for implementation
Takeaways from the Governance Intelligence and IR Magazine ESG Integration Forum – Europe, held in London Starbucks Corporation is asking the SEC for the go-ahead to exclude a shareholder proposal about cage-free eggs in China and Japan from its next proxy statement. The coffee company’s AGM is scheduled for March 12, 2025. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has filed the resolution, which asks the company to ‘disclose details of its implementation plans and timelines for reaching its cage-free egg commitment in China and Japan.’ In its supporting statement the society quotes Starbucks’ Form 10Ks as stating ‘the…
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Union Pacific legal chief to retire
Craig Richardson has been with the railroad firm since 2016 Craig Richardson, executive vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary with Union Pacific Railroad, will retire on March 31, 2025. In anticipation of the transition, Christina Conlin will join Union Pacific effective December 2 as senior vice president and deputy general counsel. Richardson has held his current position, in which he oversees all aspects of the company’s legal affairs and leads its claims management team, since December 2020. Before joining Union Pacific in 2016 as associate general counsel, he was principal shareholder at law firm Greenberg Traurig and had…
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The week in GRC: Shell wins appeal against a landmark climate ruling and Norfolk Southern settles with activist investor
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – Reuters (paywall) reported that Shell won an appeal against a landmark ruling that required the oil company to accelerate carbon reduction efforts. The ruling is a blow to campaigners who have turned to legal channels to pursue climate action. The appeals court in The Hague said Shell had a responsibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to protect people from global warming. But it dismissed the 2021 ruling that ordered Shell to cut its absolute carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030 compared to 2019 levels, including those caused…
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CSX announces legal leadership succession
Michael Burns will become chief legal officer in January Rail company CSX Corporation is promoting Michael Burns to become senior vice president and chief legal officer (CLO), effective January 2, 2025. Burns will succeed Nathan Goldman, executive vice president and CLO, who is retiring on January 1 after spending 21 years with the company. Burns is at present vice president and general counsel with CSX. In his new role, he will oversee all of the company’s legal and regulatory affairs, the corporate secretary’s office, risk management, police and infrastructure protection, environmental and hazmat matters and audit functions. Since joining CSX…
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Comment: Four lessons for governance and IR professionals from Disney’s proxy fight with Trian Partners
The clash with Nelson Peltz’s activist campaign has clear learnings for listed companies, say Jean Benoit Roquette Do institutional investors take into account firms’ climate exposures in setting up stock portfolios? And, if they do, what are the effects on the cost of equity of the firms they are investing in (or divesting from) and the resulting effects on the firms’ future environmental profiles? A common narrative in climate finance is that if an investor cares about the climate and a company is negatively contributing to the environment, then the investor will ‘punish’ the company by underweighting the stock in…
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Discover names interim legal chief
Kelly Welsh to succeed Hope Melhman, who is joining Ally Financial 2024 is almost over and, while it is not yet time to wrap it up (earnings season is not over yet and we still have a slightly consequential election coming up), it is worthwhile to return to one of the hottest corporate stories of the year: the larger-than-life fight between The Walt Disney Company, with its superstar CEO Bob Iger, against activist fund Trian Partners led by Nelson Peltz. It delivers great learnings for both governance and IR practitioners. This clash of the titans has had many plot twists…
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Can sustainable divesting pressure companies to improve their environmental profiles?
Academic Dr George Skiadopoulos presents the latest research into how investors sway companies Discover Financial Services has hired Kelly Welsh as interim chief legal officer (CLO), general counsel and head of corporate and public affairs. Welsh will succeed Hope Mehlman, who is leaving Discover at the end of November to become CLO and corporate affairs officer with Ally Financial. According to his LinkedIn profile, Welsh has most recently been managing director at Crab Tree Advisory. Earlier in his career he was general counsel with the US Department of Commerce, having previously spent 14 years with Northern Trust Corporation as executive…
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Nasdaq and Regions Financial win top honors at Corporate Governance Awards
Winners of Governance Intelligence’s 17th annual Corporate Governance Awards announced at gala ceremony in New York Nasdaq and Regions Financial Corporation last night won two of the top categories at Governance Intelligence’s 17th annual Corporate Governance Awards. Nasdaq was named governance team of the year (large cap) and Regions Financial was named governance team of the year (small to mid-cap). The companies were presented with their awards at a gala event in New York. The ceremony capped two days of events hosted by Governance Intelligence at Governance Live: the Corporate Reporting Forum and the Corporate Governance Forum. The Corporate Governance…
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The week in GRC: California climate law survives legal challenge and Southwest Airlines names board chair
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – The Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported that a California judge is allowing the state’s carbon emissions disclosure requirements to move forward as planned – for now. US District Otis Wright said he needs more information before he can decide whether the reporting regime California intends to install violates companies’ First Amendment rights against compelled speech. The US Chamber of Commerce and other trade groups sued the state of California aiming to overturn two laws that will require large businesses to disclose detailed information on their carbon emissions and…
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Deere & Company seeks to omit shareholder proposal on DE&I policies
Proposal follows what As You Sow calls ‘an ambiguous and inconsistent shift’ Deere & Company, also known as John Deere, is asking the SEC for the go-ahead to omit a shareholder proposal from its 2025 proxy statement that seeks information about the impact of the firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) efforts. The proposal, filed by As You Sow, asks Deere to ‘report publicly on the effectiveness of its efforts to create a meritocratic workplace where no one is excluded from contributing to the company’s success because of an immutable characteristic, such as gender, race or ethnicity. The report should……