2009 US Proxy Season

The 2009 US proxy season has its unofficial kickoff in the form of RiskMetric Group’s US Corporate Governance Policy Update, where the focus is again largely on executive compensation practices. The Policy Update includes voting recommendations on key issues such as “poor pay practices” and several major governance proposals, including separation of CEO and Chair positions. RMG has also changed its evaluation of total shareholder return in acknowledgement of the volatile market environment. While the season is just beginning, we’ve already spotted several emerging trends, indicating that companies will continue to be targeted by activists even while they may be struggling with their business operations, all of which should make for a very interesting upcoming season. Our memo, which discusses the emerging trends for the forthcoming proxy season as well as RMG’s Policy Update, is available here.