The era of shareholder activism extends into year 2020, forecasts a new study on shareholder voting by the Conference Board, a corporate think tank. The agency released the study, “Proxy Voting Analytics (2016-2019) and 2020 Season Preview,” in collaboration with the Rutgers Center for Corporate Law and Governance, leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates, and data analytics firm ESGAUGE.
The study, which reviewed proxy voting data of corporations registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission that held their annual shareholder meetings between January and June 2019 and are on the Russell 3000 Index, also finds investors are showing an increased interest in board composition—particularly diversity—and in overall pay between men and women at publicly traded companies. In addition, notes the report, shareholder proposals regarding disclosure on corporate political activity are likely to spike in the upcoming election year.
