As public companies prepare for the 2011 proxy season, investor relations officers and other senior executives will need to re-invent themselves. All will confront a greatly enhanced world of shareholder communications stemming from the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC’s new proxy disclosure rules, and its proposed “proxy plumbing” reform bound to streak across the stage in 2011.
Typically, IROs and other communications officers haven’t played a key role in the proxy process. Well, those days are over. Corporations must now make maximum use of their key communicators and various communication tools, including the proxy statement, to convince institutional and individual shareholders to vote with management in director elections and on important proxy issues.
