Earlier this month, Squire Sanders hosted a roundtable discussion, “The Activist Shareholder,” during its 2014 Roundtable for General Counsel in the Chemical and Performance Materials Industries, a two-day executive event held in Washington, DC. The panel addressed the significant increase in shareholder activism in recent years, and among other topics, it addressed the need for company boards to have directors who are “camera ready,” or willing to personally speak to activist investors on sensitive issues, such as dissatisfaction with executive compensation.
The panel was representative of various industry expert perspectives, and included Glenn Booraem, Principal and Fund Controller for Vanguard; Aeisha Mastagni, Investment Officer, Corporate Governance for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) Investments; Patrick McGurn, Special Counsel, Institutional Shareholder Services; Ann Yerger, Executive Director, Council of Institutional Investors; and Margaret Foran, Chief Governance Officer, Vice President and Corporate Secretary, Prudential Financial, Inc. and board member of Occidental Petroleum Corporation. The panel discussion was moderated by Abby E. Brown, Partner in the Global Corporate Practice of Squire Sanders.
We have now published a note detailing the highlights of the panel discussion.
