By Ross Kerber, U.S. Sustainable Business Correspondent |
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A big theme of this spring's proxy season is the new influence that securities regulators gave corporate executives over their shareholders, as you can read in our recent story here. To go deeper, I spoke with conservative shareholder activist Paul Chesser on Friday, and you can read a transcript of our interview below and see the video of our talk.
This week's newsletter also includes links to our coverage of an important Vanguard settlement with Republicans over its climate record, and to a report about how the workforces of big retailers are effectively subsidized by taxpayers.
Please follow me on LinkedIn and/or Bluesky. You can reach me via ross.kerber@thomsonreuters.com.
A note about last week's newsletter: I should have been more clear that neither BlackRock nor Vanguard allows retail investors to vote directly on ballot items like CEO pay or director elections at specified companies. BlackRock does provide the option to institutional clients. |
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A still from my discussion with Paul Chesser of the NLPC |
This conservative shareholder activist is no fan of Trump's SEC |
Pay attention when rivals join the same side of an argument. That happened recently when the leader of the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative-leaning shareholder group, co-wrote an op-ed piece with an author from Ceres, the liberal-leaning climate organization. The article, published by The Wall Street Journal, argued Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins is out to "silence shareholders."
To hear more I dialed up Paul Chesser, a director at the NLPC, which submits about two dozen shareholder resolutions a year putting companies on the spot on topics like diversity programs or ties to China. We spoke about the leverage the resolutions give activists and the impact of the SEC's changes so far.
You can click the button below to read a transcript of our conversation or to watch it on video. |
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The Warner Bros. Water Tower is pictured at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, U.S. February 27, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Cole |
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Paramount's $110 billion deal to buy Warner Bros will likely not face opposition from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
- Apollo Global Management and its billionaire co-founders Leon Black and Marc Rowan were sued by shareholders for allegedly defrauding them about the private capital firm's dealings with financier Jeffrey Epstein.
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A trial has begun over U.S. claims that Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation dominated live event markets in ways that hurt artists, venues and fans.
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A recent Institute for Policy Studies report identified 13 of the biggest S&P 500 employers including Dollar Tree and Starbucks whose median 2024 employee pay fell below the $33,576 income threshold for a family of three to be eligible for SNAP food aid that year.
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Vanguard settled a suit in Texas brought by Republican attorneys general over its climate activism by agreeing to pay $29.5 million and renewing some passivity pledges. The deal looks less appealing to rivals and co-defendants in the suit BlackRock and State Street, and brought criticism from environmentalists.
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