Shareholders as Activists
How clients invest their money may seem like a private matter, but investment decisions have undeniable influence in the public sphere. Clients that invest in publicly-traded companies have the right to influence corporate policies and practices. Concerned investors demand that companies be responsive not only to its shareholders but to stakeholders at large, including communities where it operates and to its own employees. When many investors act in concert, the power of the share can make itself felt on a global scale.
PAM works with our partners at the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility * and the Shareholder Action Network *, along with other advocates of corporate responsibility to:
 Engage in dialogue with corporate officials
Introduce shareholder resolutions
Wage campaigns to get the vote out on shareholder resolutions
Lobby regulatory agencies to implement substantive, enforceable corporate reforms
Build networks with others committed to social and environmental business practices.
Shareholder Resolutions
Throughout our history, PAM has initiated or co-filed shareholder resolutions on behalf of our clients at the following companies:
Pacific Telesis: to stop the use of clear-cut rainforest timber for phone book paper
Unocal: greater pollution prevention measures
Safeway: equal employment opportunity
The Walt Disney Company: fair labor practices
Intel Corporation: environmental standards
General Motors and Ford Motor Company: global warming
Wal*Mart: CERES principles for environmental responsibility; vendor standards
Enron Corporation: indigenous peoples' rights and bio-diversity.
· Click here for the text of the Enron resolution.
Shareholder Awareness Program
Launched in 2002, the Shareholder Awareness Program provides a detailed proxy analysis of social shareholder resolutions at any company where clients hold voting stock. We monitor hundreds of proxy filings each year and provide clients with a Social Proxy Alert that includes an analysis of the proposal and PAM's position on the issue. PAM expanded this program in 2003 to cover such corporate governance issues as board independence, stock option expensing and auditor conflicts of interest.
· Click here to view a Social Proxy Alert on a resolution filed by Amnesty International at Exxon-Mobil.
Corporate Reform Lobbying
High-profile corporate "meltdowns" have put pressure on regulatory agencies (such as the SEC and FINRA) to create reforms safeguarding the investing public from executive greed, lack of auditor independence, and other malpractices that have shaken investor confidence. PAM has been monitoring the regulatory environment to determine whether reforms that have been enacted are substantive and enforceable. PAM has worked with a broad coalition of SRI and corporate governance experts to pressure the SEC to adopt rules mandating that mutual funds disclose their proxy voting records and that companies open up their corporate board nomination process to shareholders. Similarly, PAM has lobbied the NYSE to strengthen its proposed corporate governance reforms. Most recently, PAM has pushed for the mandatory expensing of stock options with the Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB), a practice intended to reign in excessive executive compensation and provide a clearer picture of a company's finances to investors.
· Click here to read PAM's letter regarding proposed SEC rules regarding proxy voting guidelines and vote disclosure by mutual funds and investment advisers.
· Click here to read PAM's letter to the OMB and SEC addressing mutual fund companies' objection to the SEC rules requiring proxy voting disclosure (as being inconsistent with the federal Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995).
* PLEASE NOTE: The information being provided is strictly as a courtesy. When you link to any of these web-sites provided here, you are leaving this site. Progressive Asset Management and Financial West Group make no representation as to the completeness or accuracy of information provided at these sites. Nor is the company liable for any direct or indirect technical or system issues or any consequences arising out of your access to or your use of third-party technologies, sites, information and programs made available through this site. When you access one of these sites, you are leaving Progressive Asset Management's web-site and assume total responsibility and risk for your use of the sites you are linking to.
Progressive Asset Management (PAM) is the
socially responsible division of Financial West Group (FWG).
Securities offered
through Registered Representatives of
Financial West Group, Member
FINRA,
SIPC. FWG is responsible for
supervision and oversight of the registered representatives listed on this site.
Progressive Asset Management 520 Third Street, Suite 204, Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 622-0202
|
