PROXY COUNTDOWN

Trade Wire - BUY/SELL Top Stories: CBRE Group ’s COO Vikram Kohli received a one-time cash retention bonus of $1.45 million for not quitting. If the Company terminates Mr. Kohli without Cause or he resigns for Good Reason, there is no obligation to repay the Retention Bonus. Ball Corporation announced that CFO Howard Yu is stepping down after less than two years at the job. Hoawrd will receive sev...

Trade Wire - BUY/SELL Top Stories: Chipotle Chief Strategy Officer and former CFO Jack Hartung is joining the board of Tesla , where he will be greeted by his son-in-law–a non-executive, salaried employee of Tesla since  2016–and Elon’s brother Kimbal, who served on Chipotle board from 2013 to 2019.  Here’s a good one at small cap company Luminar Technologies , following a Code of Busine...

Trade Wire - BUY/SELL Top Stories: UnitedHealth Group CEO Sir Andrew Witty has resigned six months after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered in New York City. In his place, former CEO and current Executive Chair Steve Hemsley will boomerang back into a role he originally vacated in 2017. Steve will receive a golden hello again consisting of a one-time $60M option award. While the comp...

Trade Wire - BUY/SELL Top Stories: This week the focus is on egregious golden hello and goodbye packages: State Street’s new CFO John Woods gets a one-time cash payment of $1M and then One-time buy-out awards consisting of $3M cash and $12M equity. New MongoDB CFO Michael Berry will get two equity grants: a new hire grant worth $9M and a sign-on bonus grant worth $3M. It’s cute how they each have...

PROXY COUNTDOWN SCRIPT <THEME MUSIC> This is Proxy Countdown. Welcome to the big show for the week of April 21, 2025 alongside my tag team partner Matt Moscardi. I'm Damion Rallis. On today’s countdown: Two new sycophants join Mark Zuckerberg’s expanding board of cronies A whacky 8-k filing fight at a weed company A proxy fight at Harley Davidson hides the good stuff in a redacted resignatio...

Corporate democracy with Sarah Haan

Director “party line” voting, plus nom committee failures and Disney investors are asleep

ISS flips on Disney, plus CEO pay tweaks, Starbucks results, and low CEO pay ratios

Non-profit board interlocks are a widespread, plus Kroger’s CEO fired, and Indivior’s overhauled activist board

Tariff board survivors, plus Boeing’s board loss and results at Apple and Deere

Copy/paste anti-ESG proposals at Apple and Deere, plus guest Mike Levin on activism in 2025

Director votes on “merit”, relocation cost to median employee ratios, and long-tenured lead directors

PROXY COUNTDOWN SCRIPT <THEME MUSIC> This is Proxy Countdown. Welcome to the big show for the week of January 27, 2025  alongside my tag team partner Matt Moscardi. I'm Damion Rallis. On today’s countdown: The First Woman of Color to Lead a Major U.S. Lender The new COO of T-Mobile is getting pampered A proxy fight is avoided at Pfizer Anti-DEI shareholder proposals continue to fail mis...

Scott’s Miracle Gro, Becton Dickinson, Visa, Jacob’s Solutions, Walgreens

Think like an activist: Korea Tobacco & Ginseng with Sunghyun Lee at Flashlight Capital

PROXY COUNTDOWN SCRIPT <THEME MUSIC> This is Proxy Countdown. Welcome to the big show for the week of October 28, 2024  alongside my tag team partner Matt Moscardi. I'm Damion Rallis. On today’s countdown: Compensation Committee shenanigans at Corpay Ross Stores unloads the money truck for a guy who sells boots Bi-polar voters at Neogen One less Schmuck at Consumers Bancorp And on the B...

PROXY COUNTDOWN SCRIPT <THEME MUSIC> This is Proxy Countdown. Welcome to the big show for the week of October 21, 2024  alongside my tag team partner Matt Moscardi. I'm Damion Rallis. On today’s countdown: The glass cliff crumbles at CVS Walt Disney keeps trying to replace Bob Iger Accelerated retirements at Southwest Airlines An angry shareholder mob at Klarna And on the Big Vote, Lam...

PROXY COUNTDOWN SCRIPT <THEME MUSIC> This is Proxy Countdown. Welcome to the big show for the week of October 14, 2024  alongside my tag team partner Matt Moscardi. I'm Damion Rallis. On today’s countdown: The Qualcomm board smells a lot more like Hewlett Packard An early Christmas at Motorola Solutions Pfizer is playing defense with a man named Mortimer A moral victory for Arjuna Capit...

PROXY COUNTDOWN SCRIPT <THEME MUSIC> This is Proxy Countdown. Welcome to the big show for the week of October 7, 2024  alongside my tag team partner Matt Moscardi. I'm Damion Rallis. On today’s countdown: LPL CEO Dan Arnold said something he shouldn’t have Zoom is super stoked about its new CFO A proxy battle at Pfizer is heating up quickly An honorary victory for environmental sharehol...

The Big Vote at P&G, plus Commerzbank’s glass cliff, Elliott vs. Southwest, Masimo’s loss, and ConAgra’s oops

PROXY COUNTDOWN SCRIPT <THEME MUSIC> This is Proxy Countdown. Welcome to the big show for the week of September 16, 2024  alongside my tag team partner Matt Moscardi. I'm Damion Rallis. On today’s countdown: New Air Jordans at Nike 23andMe reduced to Me Activist Investor Elliot Management is still not happy with Southwest Airlines A Pay Committee mutiny at Open Text And on the Big Vote,...

The Big Vote at Darden, plus Starboard shakes Southwest, Norfolk Southern’s CEO problem, and a board draft

The Big Vote at General Mills, plus Starbucks poaches a burrito and Intel is pre-activist concerned

Proxy Season Preview: Board knowledge and skill votes, plus board appointment fails, fake CEOs, and activist updates

2023-24 PROXY AWARDS, including best performing director, best proxy match, and board you want a beer with