ICCR members and staff have long championed and safeguarded the right to be active owners of corporations and are committed to protecting the shareholder advocacy process as a cornerstone of corporate democracy. As investors and fiduciaries, we encourage governance practices that will improve both investor and public relations through greater transparency and accountability and thereby reduce reputational and legal risks.
Featured ICCR Initiatives
#AskTheCEO. The annual meeting of shareholders is a hallmark of corporate accountability: the one time in the year when CEOs and the board are obligated to present themselves to their shareholders and submit to their questions. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, most companies were forced to abandon in-person 2020 annual shareholder meetings and moved to a virtual format. As the 2020 proxy season unfolded we heard that the virtual format for AGMs was hampering investors’ ability to ask questions and, in some cases, even present their resolutions.
To ensure that investors' questions for CEOs and the board were documented and on-the-record, we helped them memorialize their questions via one-minute videos; the videos helped shareholders track whether the companies censored the questions from the Q&A, and if they did respond, how substantive their responses were. Lear more about the campaign here
Shareholders Mount a Defense of SEC Rule 14a-8. The SEC is considering changes to Rule 14a-8, the process that determines shareholder access to corporate proxies. These changes would diminish shareholders' ability to be active owners of corporations by making the filing of resolutions more onerous. In response, ICCR has joined together with the Investor Rights Forum, CERES, the Council of Institutional Investors, US SIF, PRI, and other stakeholders to defend shareholder rights. Together, we are pressing key decision makers to preserve Rule 14a-8 in its present form, as the most effective and efficient means for shareholders to communicate with boards of directors, corporate management, and their fellow shareholders. Learn more.
