With the Securities and Exchange Commission proposing a slew of changes to proxy disclosure and shareholder communications practices based on the Dodd-Frank Act, it’s time for companies to adopt a “lean forward” approach to investor communications, particularly in the proxy statement. Yet, as companies prepare for the 2011 proxy season, they seem to be taking a “lean back” approach to compliance with the proxy disclosure rules and Dodd-Frank provisions—looking to see what peer companies are doing rather than taking the lead to provide better information to their investors.
In a recent speech to the National ...