Shareholders & Activism

Governance Intelligence has extended the deadline for submissions for this year’s Corporate Governance Awards Nominees now have until Friday, August 8 to enter their submission for the 18th annual Corporate Governance Awards following an extension of the deadline. A gala ceremony announcing the winners will be held on Thursday, November 6, attended by hundreds of industry professionals from the world of governance, risk and compliance (GRC) in New York City. The commemoration will celebrate excellence in GRC, honoring those who set new standards across the sector. They cover many areas of governance-related activity, including hosting AGMs, compliance programs and ESG…

BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street Global Advisors are setting the agenda for companies Bitcoin Depot, a US-based Bitcoin ATM operator and fintech company, has appointed Philip Brown as its new chief compliance officer. In the new role, Brown will oversee Bitcoin Depot’s compliance strategy as the company continues its expansion across the US and internationally. Specifically, Brown will manage the company’s compliance program, including its anti-money laundering and ‘know your customer’ procedures, transaction monitoring and state-by-state compliance strategies. In addition, he will also lead the company’s regulatory engagement plans and ensure that its compliance infrastructure scales alongside its growing footprint.…

This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web —Erica Williams, chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), is due to step down from the group after being ousted from the role, Reuters (paywall) reported. ‘Today I accepted Erica Williams’ offer to resign as chair and a board member of the PCAOB and thanked her for her service,’ said SEC chair Paul Atkins in a statement. ‘I am grateful she has agreed to stay on until July 22. We look forward to advancing our oversight responsibilities of the PCAOB as it continues its important work.’ It…

This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web —Telsa is to hold its annual shareholder meeting on November 06, following calls from a group of investors to set one, citing legal obligations, with its proxy statement to be released in the coming weeks. According to Reuters (paywall), Tesla’s last meeting was in June 2024. In April the company said it would file its annual proxy statement later than expected as the board had not decided on a date for the 2025 AGM. The news comes as the electric vehicle (EV) maker has suffered a series of setbacks…

New study finds that majority of investors think poor governance practices open door to activist attention The majority of institutional investors credit poor governance practices as the biggest driver of shareholder activism, a new study from shareholder advisory firm SquareWell Partners has found. Some 84 percent of investors polled, who hail from North America, Europe (including the UK) and Asia, said that poor governance was the main driver of activist investor attention. The findings of SquareWell’s report, titled The Long and the Short of It: Institutional Investors’ Views on Activism, center around three key themes, views on activism, evaluation criteria…

This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web —ISS has joined Glass Lewis in recommendingSINOVAC Biotech’s shareholders vote to keep the company’s current board of directors. The proposal came from SAIF Partners, SINOVAC’s largest single investor in close coordination with Advantech/Prime Success and Vivo Capital, who believe that the current board does not act in the interests of all shareholders. They also believe the current board lacks integrity, industry experience, management expertise and respect for the law necessary to fulfill its promises to shareholders, according to the latest release from SAIF Through the proposal SAIF aims to…

As the 2025 shareholder meeting season wraps up, companies must turn their attention to a critical next step: engaging shareholders after the meeting concludes The annual shareholder meeting marks a major milestone for public companies – but it is not the finish line. Instead, it offers a starting point fordeeper, more meaningful shareholder engagementthroughout the rest of the year. As expectations from investors continue to rise, here are five reasons why public companies must prioritize post-shareholder meeting engagement: 1. Understand the full story behind the votes While SEC-mandated N-PX filings reveal how most institutional investors voted, for the most part…

This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – UK business publishing company Informa was widely criticized this week after shifting its AGM to take place in the French Riviera rather than its London headquarters. Informa’s decision to hold the event in Nice, France means its annual meeting will in effect be online-only for UK-based share owners as they would struggle to find the time – and in some cases the money – to attend, according to This Is Money. Catherine Howarth, head of investor lobby group ShareAction, described the decision as another example of ‘disappearing directors’,…

Regulator’s Investor Advisory Committee recently tackled the topic Coffee shop chain Starbucks will be searching for a new legal chief in the coming months after announcing it would be parting ways with current chief legal officer Brad Lerman. In an SEC filing, the company says that Lerman ‘would no longer serve’ in his role ‘as of a date to be determined’, but would continue to work as CLO until a successor was appointed. Lerman, who previously worked at medical device company Medtronic as general counsel before retiring in 2022, came out of retirement in April 2023 to become Starbucks’ CLO…

This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – A collection of pension funds has demanded that Elon Musk commit to working at least 40 hours a week at electric car maker Tesla, calling for corporate governance reforms to address a ‘crisis’ at the company, according to the Financial Times (paywall). A letter sent to Tesla’s chair Robyn Denholm and signed by 12 institutional investors, including the New York City Comptroller, the American Federation of Teachers and Denmark’s AkademikerPension, who jointly manage a total of $950 bn in assets, demands Musk’s ‘full-time attention’ on Tesla to address…