Proxy Season 2020: Spotlight on Dark Money, Human Rights

By LEIF UTNE

This proxy season – March through June, when most corporate annual meetings take place – Newground filed 8 shareholder proposals on behalf of clients that were voted on in company proxies.  

Carrying forward our commitment to democracy, Newground’s driving focus this spring was public disclosure of corporate political spending (a.k.a. "Dark Money"). Our proposals received high levels of shareholder support at Motorola (47.9%), NextEra Energy (38.9%), and ExxonMobil (30.9%). A similar proposal is slated for a vote at Nike's September annual meeting.

Amazon's contribution of over $1 million to a local political action committee in Seattle's 2019 city council election led us to file a lobbying disclosure proposal, which received a strong 30.1% vote at the company's May 27th annual shareholder meeting.

The #RebootFacebook campaign, which Newground joined by co-filing a shareholder resolution, secured commitments from the company to delete fake accounts, remove child pornography, and increase disclosure around political advertisers on its platforms.

Two shareholder proposals filed by Newground at Chevron received high levels of support at the May 27th virtual stockholder meeting.  See our page on Chevron and Its Ecuador Problem for further details.