Archive
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ExxonMobil shareholders to vote on climate proposals
AGM takes place May 31 NYSE-listed Everest Re Group has recruited Ricardo Anzaldua to become executive vice president and group general counsel, effective June 12. He will report to president and CEO Juan Andrade and will sit on the company’s executive leadership team. Anzaldua most recently was executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, where he led the enterprise legal, corporate secretarial and board governance functions. Before that, he was executive vice president and general counsel of MetLife. In that role he oversaw the company’s legal, compliance and government relations functions. Earlier…
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The week in GRC: More companies alerting DoJ to potential misconduct and stock buybacks keep up pace
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – The Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported that Facebook owner Meta Platforms was fined $1.3 bn by EU regulators for sending user information to the US. Meta’s top privacy regulator in the EU said in its decision that Facebook has for years illegally stored data about European users on its servers in the US, where it contends the information could be accessed by US spy agencies without sufficient means for users to appeal. In addition to imposing a fine, the decision orders Meta to stop sending information about European…
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Shell shareholders vote against climate resolution
Protestors invade AGM, chanting ‘go to hell, Shell’ Shareholders at Shell have voted against aligning the energy company’s ESG goals with the Paris Climate Agreement, despite persistence from activists and protesters. At the AGM earlier this week, shareholders voted against resolution 26, which called for the energy company to reduce its Scope 3 emissionsto align with the Paris climate goals. There was a 79 percent majority against the resolution, roughly the same as last year, while Shell’s own energy plan was passed with 80 percent of shareholder support. Shell CEO Wael Sawan said he was pleased most investors remain supportive…
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ONEOK general counsel to retire later this year
Stephen Allen has been with the company since 2006 Stephen Allen, senior vice president, general counsel and assistant secretary with ONEOK, will retire in mid-August 2023 having spent more than 17 years with the company. According to ONEOK, Allen is leaving the company to join GuideStone, a faith-based financial services organization. He will remain a ONEOK employee until the middle of August as the company seeks his successor, and will remain available to the firm and its management team on aspects of the recently announced acquisition of Magellan Midstream Partners. In addition to his legal and governance roles, Allen is…
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E and S proposals gain traction at JPMorgan Chase AGM
Climate transition planning and political spending on the ballot NYSE-listed Albertsons Companies has recruited Tom Moriarty to become executive vice president and general counsel, effective June 5. He will report to CEO Vivek Sankaran. Moriarty will join the food and drug retailer from CVS Health, where he spent more than a decade in increasingly senior roles including chief strategy officer, executive vice president for global pharma and, most recently, executive vice president, chief policy and external affairs officer and general counsel. Moriarty oversaw all legal and regulatory functions within CVS Health, including its $78 bn acquisition of Aetna. He also…
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Albertsons recruits new top lawyer
Tom Moriarty was previously with CVS Health Two shareholder proposals – one from the environmental leg of ESG and one from the social leg – each garnered around one third of shareholder votes cast at JPMorgan Chase & Co’s AGM last week. Governance professionals generally view such levels of support as significant, even though they are not majorities. According to an SEC filing, 34.8 percent of votes cast were in support of a proposal on climate transition planning. The resolution, filed by As You Sow, requests that JPMorgan Chase issue a report disclosing a transition plan that describes ‘how it…
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Amazon shareholders to vote on 401(k) climate change proposal
Almost 20 shareholder resolutions in this year’s proxy statement Amazon.com shareholders will vote at its AGM this Wednesday on a shareholder proposal – alongside almost 20 other investor resolutions – about the company’s retirement plan and how it may be impacted by climate change. The proposal, one of several on the topic filed by As You Sow at companies this proxy season, requests that Amazon’s board ‘publish a report… disclosing how the company is protecting plan beneficiaries with a longer investment time horizon from climate risk in the company’s default retirement options.’ The group says the report should include, at…
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The week in GRC: Group asks Lyft shareholders to vote against board chair and senator unveils plan to regulate AI
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – The Wall Street Journal (paywall) noted that companies are for the first time this year tabulating gains and losses in the stock awards that make up much of the pay packages for CEOs. In the past, companies have reported executive compensation as it was valued when executives received it. The new measure – compensation actually paid – under new SEC rules is designed to move disclosure beyond the moment-in-time snapshots that investors have considered for years. The numbers show that in 2022 about two thirds of top executives…
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Chevron shareholders to vote on skeptical climate change proposal
Resolution eyes response to ‘calls for Chevron decarbonization on activist-established deadlines’ Chevron Corporation shareholders will vote at the company’s AGM later this month on a climate change-related resolution based on a skeptical view of the issue, in contrast to most proposals in this area. The resolution comes amid an uptick in recent years both of pro and anti-ESG shareholder measures. Research from Georgeson finds twice as many proposal submissions that were critical of the ESG landscape in 2022 (52) as in 2021 (26), and there does not appear to have been a downturn this year. The proposal filed by David…
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Chewy general counsel to leave company
Susan Helfrick joined the pet products firm in 2014 Susan Helfrick, general counsel and corporate secretary of Chewy, has notified the company of her decision to retire from her position, effective June 20, 2023, according to a regulatory filing. Helfrick joined the pet products firm in December 2014 as general counsel. According to her LinkedIn profile she previously spent more than five years as general counsel for the Americas and executive vice president at GfK. Before that she was assistant general counsel and vice president at Goldman Sachs, where her work included structured and negotiated complex capital markets transactions and…