Ms. Schapiro vowed at her confirmation hearing last January to move quickly to consider proposals to give shareholders the ability to approve independent directors.
Companies hosting virtual meetings often emphasize shareholder engagement as well as cost savings and observe that web participation may exceed physical attendance, allowing shareholders the ability to attend the annual meeting from any location around the world.
2015 was a turning point for shareholder proposals seeking to implement proxy access, which gives certain shareholders the ability to nominate directors and include those nominees in a company's proxy materials.
Nevertheless, proxy access does give smaller shareholders the ability to impose significant costs on the company in terms of time and expense and could be used as an effective bargaining tool in an activism context.
Nell Minow of the Corporate Library, a corporate-governance watchdog, may be right that "the only thing that will have an impact on executive pay is giving shareholders the ability to throw out board members who get it wrong.
Also, the financial regulation bill approved by the House of Representative and awaiting final action in the Senate authorizes the S.E.C. to issue rules that would give shareholders the ability to nominate directors and make use of company proxy materials.
As a result, the board is giving Engelhard shareholders the ability to elect a majority of the newly enlarged board at the Annual Meeting without the need for, or distraction of, BASF's threatened consent solicitation.
DealBook » The Trade: In Shareholder Say-on-Pay Votes, Whispers, Not Shouts | The Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law gave shareholders the ability to vote on the pay packages of top executives, and it turns out that they fall over themselves to approve, says Jesse Eisinger.
The Dodd Frank bill that Congress passed in response to the financial crisis gave shareholders the ability to approve or reject pay packages and this year, shareholders have rejected pay packages at Disney, Mattel, Ameriprise and other big firms.
The combination of the repurchase program and the special dividend is delivering what we had promised our investors and also allows us to give all shareholders the ability to own a bigger stake in AOL.
