February 1, 2018
Early Bird Registration! Our “Pay Ratio & Proxy Disclosure Conference”
We’re excited to announce that we have just posted the registration information for our popular conferences – “Pay Ratio & Proxy Disclosure Conference” & “Say-on-Pay Workshop: 15th Annual Executive Compensation Conference” – to be held September 25-26 in San Diego and via Live Nationwide Video Webcast. Here are the agendas – 20 panels over two days.
Early Bird Rates – Act by April 13th: Huge changes are afoot for executive compensation practices with pay ratio disclosures on the horizon. We are doing our part to help you address all these changes – and avoid costly pitfalls – by offering a special early bird discount rate to help you attend these critical conferences (both of the Conferences are bundled together with a single price). So register by April 13th to take advantage of the 20% discount.
More on Voting: When Is An Investor “Passive”?
A while back, Liz blogged about investors who break from their normal approach of voting with ISS to support management. Does voting with management make those investors more “passive”? Not necessarily. Here’s an excerpt from “Proxy Insight’s” follow-up article (pg. 7) by Aon Governance’s Karla Bos:
Certainly, at the investment firms I worked for, overriding our voting policy was anything but a passive act. With the value placed on thoughtful and thorough decision-making and the constant spotlight on our voting decisions, the override process was intentionally designed to take some measure of time and effort. It took an active voting process to engage with issuers, hold internal discussions and debates, ensure no conflicts were present, and document our rationale for voting differently than we typically might have.
Furthermore, like the ISS auto-voters, many of our overrides resulted in decisions to vote with management. Similar to the ISS voting policy, many of our stated voting policies addressed potential governance concerns, so they were written to lay out the voting action we would take in those cases. Therefore it is not surprising that our overrides often occurred where we ultimately deemed the company’s practice acceptable and appropriate based on the particular facts and circumstances.
This is a good reminder that even some so-called “passive” investors are actively engaged…
Our February Eminders is Posted!
We have posted the February issue of our complimentary monthly email newsletter. Sign up today to receive it by simply inputting your email address!
– Broc Romanek