Archive
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Motiva Enterprises recruits new general counsel
Amy Marlyse Plato previously worked at Aramco Services Company Amy Marlyse Plato has joined Houston-based Motiva Enterprises as executive vice president and general counsel. In her new role, she also serves as corporate secretary and business compliance officer. Plato succeeds Chris Vice, who retired after ‘performing this role with distinction’ since 2011, according to the company. Motiva refines, distributes and markets petroleum products and owns North America’s largest refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. From January 1, 2002 until May 1, 2017 the company was operated as a 50-50 joint venture between Shell and Saudi Aramco. On May 1, 2017, Saudi…
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Working together: How governance and IR teams tackle key challenges
Trillium filed nine board or executive diversity proposals in 2019, up from four last year. What’s behind that focus? These shareholder proposals on executive team diversity were the first of their kind to be filed. This first effort was a proof of concept to see what the results and outcomes would be, and we thought it was very positive both in terms of companies making commitments to improve diversity and, when we did need to go to a vote, getting a majority on that proposal. How were these proposals different from previous ones? Diversity proposals before this focused on three…
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Handling California’s ambitious data-privacy law
For companies that collect, store, share or sell California residents’ personal information, time is of the essence to enact policies, procedures and controls ensuring compliance with the state’s new data-privacy law – both now and as their business models evolve. Joseph Moreno offers some timely advice Corporate Secretary and IR Magazine are pleased to announce the launch of new special report Working together: How governance and IR teams tackle key challenges. Click here to download the report >> Companies are increasingly seeing the value in having their governance, legal and corporate secretary teams work closely with their colleagues in investor…
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SSGA to get tough with boards lagging on ESG
CEO Cyrus Taraporevala warns the asset manager ‘will take appropriate voting action’ State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) is running out of patience with boards that are not taking account of important ESG issues. In a January 28 letter to directors, SSGA chief executive Cyrus Taraporevala warns that starting this proxy season the asset manager ‘will take appropriate voting action against board members at companies in the S&P 500, FTSE 350, ASX 100, TOPIX 100, DAX 30 and CAC 40 indices that are laggards based on their R-Factor scores and that cannot articulate how they plan to improve their score.’ SSGA…
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Shaping Trillium’s plans for 2020
Reproductive rights, economic inequality and the opioid epidemic are among the issues Trillium Asset Management will be tackling in engagement or shareholder proposals in 2020. Jonas Kron, senior vice president and director of shareholder advocacy, talks to Ben Maiden about how the firm sets its agenda and how it approaches discussions with companies It may seem like the days are long, but the weeks fly by when it comes to preparing for a major new regulatory compliance regime. And that is how many businesses are likely to feel as what seemed like a generous 18-month ramp-up from passage of the…
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MoneyGram appoints general counsel and secretary
Robert Villaseñor joined company in July 2018 as associate general counsel and assistant secretary AT&T has been reporting on its ESG performance for the last 12 years. And just as the focus on ESG among investors and companies has grown and evolved, so too has AT&T’s approach to reporting on the issues involved – notably by creating a modular disclosure structure that enables different stakeholders to take information at the level of detail they need. At the top of the reporting triangle is the company’s corporate responsibility summary, which gives stakeholders that have general-level interest a high-level overview of AT&T’s…
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How AT&T tailors ESG reporting to its audience
AT&T won the 2019 Corporate Governance Award for best ESG reporting For IBM, shareholder engagement is nothing new. Evan Barth, senior counsel at the company, says that when he joined IBM in 2008, there was already a robust proxy season engagement plan in place – long before the term ‘shareholder engagement’ was mainstream. In March, once the proxy statement has been filed, IBM’s in-season engagement efforts kick in. In 2019 the firm engaged with more than 100 institutional investors, representing more than 70 percent of the company’s institutional ownership, and reached out to more than 250,000 retail investors and registered…
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Inside IBM’s year-round engagement efforts
Why IBM won the 2019 Corporate Governance Award for best shareholder engagement Dallas-based MoneyGram International has appointed Robert Villaseñor as general counsel and corporate secretary. Villaseñor joined MoneyGram in July 2018 as associate general counsel and assistant secretary, a role in which he oversaw the corporate securities and M&A legal function for the company. He had served as interim general counsel and corporate secretary since October 2019, when Francis Henry left to join CoreLogic as chief legal officer. In his new permanent role, Villaseñor oversees global legal matters for the money transfer and peer-to-peer company and will communicate with regulators…
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Interview with Carol Ward: Lifetime achievement award winner
Carol Ward was the recipient of this year’s lifetime achievement award at the Corporate Governance Awards. Here she talks to Ben Maiden about some of the key challenges and highlights of her career and her belief in mentoring professionals One of the major projects you worked on was the 2012 spin-off of Kraft Foods’ North American grocery business. What were some of the challenges the transaction presented you with on the governance side? It was a huge company to begin with. We were splitting it in half – not just dividing it by geography but also by business, leaving the…
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SEC investor panel queries proxy reforms
Committee says proposals do not tackle the most serious issues facing the proxy system – CNBC reported that Swedish oil company Lundin Petroleum vowed to become carbon-neutral by 2030 and replace ‘Petroleum’ with ‘Energy’ in its name. The company said it will reach carbon neutrality by cutting emissions from operations, improving energy efficiency and developing carbon-capture mechanisms. The announcement comes as oil and gas companies face growing pressure from investors and climate activists over the part they play in greenhouse gas emissions. BP, Shell and Total have also announced decarbonization efforts in recent months. – According to Reuters, Prague-based Krupa…