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March 5, 2010 at 20:36 PM

"What would happen if all the small investors banded together and cast their ballots during proxy season ...?" the New York Times asks in a article that cites the contribution of ProxyDemocracy in educating shareholders. 

February 24, 2010 at 08:38 AM

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced a series of steps to educate investors about proxy voting and support greater investor participation in corporate elections.

February 18, 2010 at 09:40 AM

Moxy Vote, the new online voting platform, saluted ProxyDemocracy as one of the pioneers of the movement to empower shareholders.

February 12, 2010 at 09:45 AM

MarketWatch suggests mutual fund companies should adopt a more pro-consumer approach to proxy voting, especially on issues such as executive pay. The column also points out the value in tracking the voting records of mutual fund firms -- one of the core services offered by ProxyDemocracy.

February 5, 2010 at 15:25 PM

Investors and shareholder organizations have formed a coalition in response to the Supreme Court decision that opened the door to corporate spending on political campaigns.

February 2, 2010 at 09:15 AM

The U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that struck down the government ban on political spending by corporations will shift the fight over campaign contributions to directors and shareholders, lawyer Theodore Olson predicts.

January 29, 2010 at 10:12 AM

Leaders of two state pension funds asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to prevent companies from opting out of a proposed rule that would allow shareholders to nominate directors in corporate proxy materials, Pensions & Investments reported.

January 26, 2010 at 10:26 AM

ProxyDemocracy is among the shareholder-oriented Web sites that ``are the beginning of Business 2.0,'' the Financial Post said.

January 14, 2010 at 12:38 PM

ProxyDemocracy is highlighted in Eliot Spitzer’s column on Slate, where he says technology could transform corporate democracy as much as it changed electoral politics in 2008

January 8, 2010 at 15:44 PM

Around the Web

A simple change in the way public companies are governed will reduce turmoil in board elections and confusion in investment decisions. The answer is to mandate that corporations let stockholders vote annually on whether they want the company to exercise the rights the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling gave them to get into political races.

Environmental questions are receiving a lot of attention from shareholders during the spring proxy season, including 39 resolutions about global climate change. Other key concerns include the toxicity of consumer goods; the effect of extracting natural gas on U.S. aquifers; and the quality of corporate reporting on environmental issues.

The Initiative for Responsible Investment has moved from Boston College to Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. The initiative's projects the practice and value of corporate social responsibility investing; alternate theories of investment across asset classes; and the roles of investment consultants.

Shareholders of Walt Disney Co. turned down two investor-sponsored proposals, including a say-on-pay resolution seeking to institute advisory votes on executive compensation.

Greater shareholder rights are on the way. The question now is what form they will take, and what the consequences will be for publicly traded companies and their management, writes Robert Salomon of the Stern School of Business at New York University.

It could be that the movement for corporate governance reform is beginning to score some wins, if only because average citizens and small shareholders are beginning to understand that these issues can really mean something to them.

When do you know that factoring environmental, social, and governance issues (ESG) into investment and corporate decisions has gone mainstream? One clue is the agenda of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor Advisory Committee, whose members include ProxyDemocracy director Mark Latham.

In Apache v. Chevedden, Apache’s court brief says: “When it comes to shareholder proposals, Apache is the ‘David’ and Chevedden is the ‘Goliath.’” That seems strange coming from a $33 billion market cap company.

Whole Foods Market Inc. investors approved a nonbinding proposal to make it easier to oust a director whose conduct they deem inappropriate. Amalgamated Bank's LongView Funds, sponsor of the proposal, said the vote could restore essential rights to shareholders and hand them more control.

U.S. workers are more confident about having enough savings for retirement even after the percentage of savers declined, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.