By David Calusdian, President
The option to hold a solely virtual annual meeting has been with us for several years now, but we certainly will see a dramatic increase in the number of companies using these purely online events this coming proxy season. Broadridge’s virtualshareholdermeeting.com platform lists 140 virtual or “hybrid” (offering a virtual option to supplement the in-person meeting) events on its platform alone from now through the end of May. And we’ll be sure to see more of these events in the coming weeks as a result of the SEC’s new annual meeting guidance due to COVID-19 travel and gathering restrictions.
Below we have shared the SEC’s guidance around three major areas relating to annual meetings, including 1) changing the date, time and location of meetings; 2) holding virtual or hybrid annual meetings; and 3) providing flexibility regarding shareholder proposals. We have also included links to helpful resources, and proxy and news release examples relating to virtual or hybrid annual meetings. Of course, since state law governs the conduct of annual meetings, please refer to those corporate codes as well as any limitations provided by your stock exchange.
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Investor Relations Agency,
Investor Meetings,
Crisis Communications,
IRO,
Shareholder Communications,
Investor Relations,
Investor Relations Firm,
Corporate Communications
By Maureen Wolff, Chief Executive Officer
The fast-moving COVID-19 outbreak is presenting many unique challenges for companies around the globe as they determine how to best manage the business impact, protect their employees at large, and communicate an immense amount of information and change effectively with their employees, shareholders, customers, the media and more.
The following are 8 tips for business practices and communications with core stakeholders as you formulate policies in the wake of COVID-19.
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Investor Relations Agency,
Investor Meetings,
Crisis Communications,
IRO,
Shareholder Communications,
Investor Relations,
Investor Relations Firm,
Corporate Communications,
Employee Communications
Investor Days can be one of the most effective and cost-efficient activities in your IR program – but only if you’re prepared. Anyone who has worked “behind the scenes” of an investor day knows that it can be a logistical headache. You not only need to anticipate all the possible hiccups of hosting a live event, but handle the more substantive issues associated with telling your company’s story to a roomful of investors and analysts.
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Investor Day,
Analyst Day,
Investor Relations,
Investor Event Planning,
Event Planning
What makes Sharon Merrill Associates excel in the world of strategic communications? Trust. Experience. Resilience. Passion. Vision. Perspective. Partnerships. Take a look at our story and see how we leverage these qualities to help you build value.
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Succession Planning,
Investor Relations Agency,
Crisis Communications,
Investor Relations,
Corporate Communications
(to the tune of "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer")
You know earnings and roadshows and bus tours are needed
And a conference list full of one-on-one meetings
But have you realized…
What investors now have top of mind?
This year’s main theme in IR
Are three letters we all know
And if you dare ignore them
Shareholders will say “Oh no!”
Environmental issues
Social cause proposals too
Good governance required
ESG is here for good!
Then when you go out to sell
Your company stock
You’ll be in great shape to show
The bottom line will surely grow!
So now you know for next year
Aim for sustainability
And to attract investors
Make a plan for ESG!
Dora Gonzalez is a Senior Associate at Sharon Merrill. She has extensive communications experience and works with clients on investor relations and public relations issues, including analyst and investor targeting, conference and investor day planning, internal communications, media relations planning and execution, digital communications, social media campaign strategies and corporate messaging.
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Holiday,
Investor Relations,
IR Trends,
ESG
After many months of data breach disclosures and sexual harassment scandals, of frustration about perceived pay inequality and insular boardrooms, the largest financial institutions in the world have finally had enough. Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, fired the first warning shot this year, when in January he issued his annual letter to CEOs, titled “A Sense of Purpose.” In the letter, Fink asked public companies not only to deliver increasing returns but to demonstrate how they make a “positive contribution to society.” And in March, the Council of Institutional Investors (CII), which represents 130 pension funds managing more than $3.5 trillion in assets, called for corporate boards to adopt stricter guidelines for executives violating sexual harassment codes.
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Strategic Messaging,
Corporate Governance,
Board of Directors,
Reputation Management,
Investor Relations,
Corporate Communications,
crisis communication plan,
crisis preparation,
Culture risk
Global cybercrime damages are expected to exceed $6 trillion annually by 2021. From hacks of mobile payment and other non-traditional payment systems to data manipulation and sabotage, the external threats to operations and customer and investor perception seem to increase daily. We recently sat down with cybersecurity expert William S. Rogers Jr. of Prince Lobel Tye LLP, a Boston law firm whose attorneys handle matters of local, regional, national and international reach. Rogers, who is chair of the firm’s Data Privacy and Security Practice Group, discussed cybersecurity regulation and its impact on public and private companies.
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Strategic Messaging,
Corporate Governance,
Board of Directors,
Reputation Management,
Investor Relations,
Cybersecurity,
Investor Relations Trends,
Corporate Communications,
IR Compliance,
crisis communication plan,
cybersecurity communication plan,
crisis preparation
What makes Sharon Merrill Associates excel in the world of strategic communications? Trust. Experience. Resilience. Passion. Vision. Perspective. Partnerships. Take a look at our story and see how we leverage these qualities to help you build value.
Read More
Corporate Governance,
Investor Day,
Crisis Communications,
Analyst Day,
Investor Relations,
Corporate Communications,
Transition Communication,
Event Planning,
Perception Study,
crisis preparation,
Employee Communications
In the once cut-and-dry world of proxy statements, colorful communication matters more than ever before.
With shareholder activism still on the rise, and institutional investors like BlackRock and State Street, and collectives like the Investor Stewardship Group, sharpening their focus on corporate governance issues, the tick-the-box approach to proxy statements is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Many companies are moving beyond the traditional black & white “legalese,” paragraph-heavy proxy statement and taking a more innovative, communications-focused approach to improve transparency, defend against activism, and better engage with shareholders.
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Board Communications,
Proxy Season,
Shareholder Communications,
proxy,
proxy design
New disclosure rule presents an “apples and oranges” problem
As any communication veteran knows, every corporate “happening” creates a messaging opportunity. That is certainly the case with the impending round of pay-ratio disclosures. Starting this year, under an SEC amendment to Regulation S-K, which stemmed from a provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, most U.S. public companies will need to disclose the total annual compensation of their “median” employees, along with the ratio of that figure to the total compensation of their chief executive officers. Based on preliminary estimates, the highest ratios could exceed 350 to 1.
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Investor Relations,
crisis communication plan,
executive comp,
executive compensation,
CEO pay ratio,
compensation,
internal communications
