School Employees Retirement System of Ohio — The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

Posted by Lucian Bebchuk, Scott Hirst and June Rhee, Shareholder Rights Project, on Wednesday April 3, 2013 at 9:37 am

Tags: Classified boards, Florida SBA, Illinois State Board of Investment, Institutional Investors, Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, Lucian Bebchuk, Nathan Cummings Foundation, North Carolina State Treasurer, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, Precatory proposals, PRIM, School Employees Retirement System of Ohio, Scott Hirst, Shareholder proposals, Shareholder Rights Project, Staggered boards

Editor’s Note: Lucian Bebchuk is the Director of the Shareholder Rights Project (SRP), Scott Hirst is the SRP’s Associate Director, and June Rhee is Counsel at the SRP. The SRP, a clinical program operating at Harvard Law School, works on behalf of public pension funds and charitable organizations seeking to improve corporate governance at publicly traded companies, as well as on research and policy projects related to corporate governance. Any views expressed and positions taken by the SRP and its representatives should be attributed solely to the SRP and not to Harvard Law School or Harvard University. The work of the SRP has been discussed in other posts on the Forum available here.

As a result of the work of the Shareholder Rights Project (SRP) and SRP-represented investors, declassification proposals will be voted on in April and May 2013 at the annual meetings of 36 S&P 500 and Fortune 500 companies:

At 28 companies, agreed-upon management proposals to declassify will be brought to a shareholder vote of approval pursuant to agreements entered into with SRP-represented investors;
At 8 companies, where such agreements have not been reached, precatory proposals that the SRP has submitted on behalf of SRP-represented investors will go to a vote.

These 36 proposals are in addition to 9 proposals that already went to a vote and were approved at annual meetings of S&P 500 and Fortune 500 companies in 2013 (3 management proposals and 6 precatory proposals), as well as the many additional declassification proposals (both agreed-upon management proposals and precatory proposals) that will go to a vote at subsequent annual meetings.

…continue reading: 36 Declassification Proposals Going to a Vote in April and May

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Posted by Lucian Bebchuk, Scott Hirst and June Rhee, Shareholder Rights Project, on Thursday March 14, 2013 at 9:36 am

Tags: Classified boards, Florida SBA, Illinois State Board of Investment, Institutional Investors, Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, Lucian Bebchuk, Nathan Cummings Foundation, North Carolina State Treasurer, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, Precatory proposals, PRIM, School Employees Retirement System of Ohio, Scott Hirst, Shareholder proposals, Shareholder Rights Project, Staggered boards

Editor’s Note: Lucian Bebchuk is the Director of the Shareholder Rights Project (SRP), Scott Hirst is the SRP’s Associate Director, and June Rhee is the SRP’s Counsel. The SRP, a clinical program operating at Harvard Law School, works on behalf of public pension funds and charitable organizations seeking to improve corporate governance at publicly traded companies, as well as on research and policy projects related to corporate governance. Any views expressed and positions taken by the SRP and its representatives should be attributed solely to the SRP and not to Harvard Law School or Harvard University. The work of the SRP has been discussed in other posts on the Forum available here.

In its news alert released yesterday, the Shareholder Rights Project (SRP), working on behalf of eight SRP-represented investors, announced that proposals submitted for 2013 meetings have already had significant impact. As discussed below, major results obtained so far include the following:

Following active engagement, 46 S&P 500 and Fortune 500 companies that received shareholder proposals for 2013 annual meetings have already agreed to move towards annual elections.
These 46 companies represent more than 60% of the companies receiving shareholder proposals from SRP-represented investors for the 2013 proxy season.
Together with the 2012 work of the SRP, 91 companies — about three-quarters of the S&P 500 and Fortune 500 companies that received proposals in 2012, 2013 or both — have agreed to move towards annual elections. The aggregate market capitalization of these 91 companies exceeded one trillion dollars as of March 1, 2013.

…continue reading: Substantial 2013 Results Already Produced by SRP and SRP-Represented Investors

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Posted by Lucian Bebchuk, Scott Hirst and June Rhee, Shareholder Rights Project, on Wednesday February 13, 2013 at 8:51 am

Tags: Classified boards, Florida SBA, Illinois State Board of Investment, Institutional Investors, Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, Lucian Bebchuk, Nathan Cummings Foundation, North Carolina State Treasurer, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, Precatory proposals, PRIM, School Employees Retirement System of Ohio, Scott Hirst, Shareholder proposals, Shareholder Rights Project, Staggered boards

Editor’s Note: Lucian Bebchuk is the Director of the Shareholder Rights Project (SRP), Scott Hirst is the SRP’s Associate Director, and June Rhee is the SRP’s Counsel. The SRP, a clinical program operating at Harvard Law School, works on behalf of public pension funds and charitable organizations seeking to improve corporate governance at publicly traded companies, as well as on research and policy projects related to corporate governance. Any views expressed and positions taken by the SRP and its representatives should be attributed solely to the SRP and not to Harvard Law School or Harvard University. The work of the SRP has been discussed in other posts on the Forum available here.

In its 2012 Annual Report released today, and in joint press releases issued today with institutional investors it represents, the Shareholder Rights Project (SRP) provided detailed information about the outcomes of its work with SRP-represented investors during 2012, the SRP’s first full year of operations.

As discussed below, major results obtained during 2012 include the following (for complete details on all outcomes see the Annual Report):

48 S&P 500 companies (listed here) entering into agreements to move toward declassification;
38 successful precatory proposals (listed here), with average support of 82% of votes cast;
Over 60% of successful precatory proposals by public pension funds and over 30% of all successful precatory proposals; and
42 board declassifications (listed here), reducing the number of classified boards among S&P 500 companies by one-third.

Expected Impact by End of 2013: As a result of these outcomes and the ongoing work of the SRP and SRP-represented investors, it is estimated that a majority of the 126 S&P 500 companies that had classified boards at the beginning of 2012 will have moved toward annual elections by the end of 2013.

…continue reading: Large-Scale Governance Reforms in S&P 500 Companies

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Posted by Lucian Bebchuk and Scott Hirst, Harvard Law School, on Thursday November 29, 2012 at 8:47 am

Tags: Classified boards, Florida SBA, Illinois State Board of Investment, Institutional Investors, Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, Lucian Bebchuk, Nathan Cummings Foundation, North Carolina State Treasurer, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, Precatory proposals, PRIM, School Employees Retirement System of Ohio, Scott Hirst, Shareholder proposals, Shareholder Rights Project, Staggered boards

Editor’s Note: Lucian Bebchuk is the Director of the Shareholder Rights Project (SRP), a clinical program at Harvard Law School, and Scott Hirst is the SRP’s Associate Director. Any views expressed and positions taken by the SRP and its representatives should be attributed solely to the SRP and not to Harvard Law School or Harvard University. The work of the SRP has been discussed in other posts on the Forum available here

In joint press releases issued earlier this week, the Shareholder Rights Project (SRP) and each of eight institutional investors it represents announced their collaboration for the 2013 proxy season to encourage 74 S&P 500 and Fortune 500 public companies to move to annual elections. The SRP has submitted shareholder proposals on behalf of the eight SRP-represented investors for a vote at the 2013 annual meetings of 74 S&P 500 and Fortune 500 companies. A list of the 74 companies that received proposals is available here. The proposals urge repeal of the companies’ staggered boards and a move to annual elections.

The SRP and SRP-represented investors have already begun to engage with companies receiving shareholder declassification proposals, and some of the companies receiving shareholder proposals have already agreed to take steps necessary to declassify their boards. It is expected that, as occurred during the 2012 proxy season, the engagement by the SRP and SRP-represented investors will result in negotiated outcomes and moves to annual elections at a large proportion of the 74 companies receiving proposals.

…continue reading: Advancing Board Declassification in the 2013 Proxy Season

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Posts Tagged ‘School Employees Retirement System of Ohio’

36 Declassification Proposals Going to a Vote in April and May

Substantial 2013 Results Already Produced by SRP and SRP-Represented Investors

Large-Scale Governance Reforms in S&P 500 Companies

Advancing Board Declassification in the 2013 Proxy Season