ESG & DE&I

This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web —SEC chair Paul Atkins has urged the commission to revisit rules requiring companies to include shareholder proposals on ESG issues in proxy statements. Speaking at the University of Delaware, Atkins said his Shareholder Proposal Modernization initiative aims to reduce political debates in shareholder meetings and refocus on essential corporate matters like director elections. He argued that many ESG proposals address topics unrelated to a company’s core business, creating unnecessary costs and distractions for management. Atkins asked SEC staff to review whether Rule 14a-8, first adopted in 1942 to enable…

This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – The majority of top executives across corporate America believe that companies should maintain – or even expand – initiatives to promote DEI, despite the government’s executive orders designed to compel them to do the opposite. Forbes reported that a new survey conducted by Catalyst, a consultancy focused on creating inclusive workspaces, in conjunction with the NYU School of Law’s Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, found that 83 percent of C-suite leaders and 88 percent of legal leaders believe maintaining or expanding DEI is essential to mitigating…

How a liberal ex-hippy found common ground with conservatives in the increasingly polarized world of ESG When Robert Eccles wrote a piece calledGrift capitalism: The GOP’s brilliant strategy for ripping off ordinary Americans, it led to a challenge from a conservative friend of 20 years: if you can find a conservative that thinks sustainability is good for capital markets, will you stop ‘writing nasty stuff’ about Republicans? That led him to the position he speaks from today: a liberal ex-hippy who has found common ground with the so-called ‘eco right’. Eccles, a well-known author and lecturer who has been writing…

This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web The week in GRC: Ben & Jerry’s co-founder likens companies stepping down DEI policies to ‘appeasement’ This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – One of the co-founders of ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s has said that corporate America’s retreat from adopting DEI policies under political pressure amounted to ‘appeasement’, the Financial Times reported (paywall). The often-outspoken Ben Cohen also said that consumers cared more than ever about corporate ‘purpose’, even as companies including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Walt Disney have scaled back diversity…

Award-winning IR professionals from Sofi and Ford share their experiences on the DEI tightrope, with clear lessons for the Governance Intelligence community US software maker Adobe has named Louise Pentland as its new chief legal officer, replacing interim legal head Gloria Chen and former general counsel Dana Rao, who departed the company last year. Pentland joins the San Jose, California-based company from streaming service Roku, where she served as general counsel after joining in July 2024. Prior to that, she worked as chief counsel for the Walt Disney Company’s Experiences division, which oversees the media giant’s theme parks, cruise operations…

Debate at the IR Impact Forum – Canada 2025 put a spotlight on the views that make up each side of an increasingly politicized area of IR Whether ESG is over or increasingly relevant, in need of reform or greater standardization is the great debate. Has the term become too ‘woke’? Is it too much of a political hot potato? Does good ESG equate to better share price performance, or has it been hijacked under the pretense of improving returns? These were the topics up for debate at a recent event hosted by Governance Intelligence’s sister title, IR Impact, when…

Agency’s approach in this area likely to attract attention The SEC’s initial decisions on whether companies may exclude shareholder proposals under new guidance continue to suggest no blanket indicators of how the agency’s staff will land on certain topics – including in the high-profile diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) space. That’s according to another provisional analysis by Governance Intelligence of 14a-8 decisions published by the division of corporation finance since it released Staff Legal Bulletin (SLB) No 14M on February 12. It suggests that – as with companies’ arguments that proposals may be excluded because they relate to their ‘ordinary…

This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – Reuters reported that UBS has dropped references to establishing women in management roles and hiring employees from ethnic minority backgrounds from its 2024 annual report, instead focusing on meritocracy. UBS had said in its previous annual report that it aspired to staff 30 percent of global roles at director level and above with women by 2025. It also aimed to hire more people from ethnic minority backgrounds to make up 18.8 percent of US financial and client advisers by 2025, up from 12.2 percent in 2023. The diversity…

Domenick deRobertis says the situation is more complex than some headlines suggest – and that the language of DEI demands subtlety Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Over recent times, the acronym has become inescapable – and corporate life is no exception. That’s obvious from the numbers, with research by WorldatWork finding that 83 percent of organizations have embraced DEI policies. Yet with the US Supreme Court ruling against DEI in 2023, and Americans lately electing a president fiercely opposed to the underlying ideology, corporate diversity schemes now look increasingly fragile. That’s certainly reflected by the many multinationals retreating from DEI,…

This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – The Wall Street Journal reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ordered a stop to work at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) after being named its acting director by President Trump, who had removed Biden appointee Rohit Chopra. In an internal email, Bessent’s office directed CFPB staff to cease much of the bureau’s work, including on enforcement actions and decisions about active litigation. The email also instructs staff to suspend the effective dates for rules that had been completed but are not yet in effect. Bessent’s appointment is…