The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Wed, 06 May 2026 11:32:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png ISS Proposes New Approach to Independent Chair Shareholder Proposals – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 ISS Proposes New Approach to Independent Chair Shareholder Proposals https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2014/10/28/iss-proposes-new-approach-to-independent-chair-shareholder-proposals/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=iss-proposes-new-approach-to-independent-chair-shareholder-proposals https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2014/10/28/iss-proposes-new-approach-to-independent-chair-shareholder-proposals/#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2014 13:03:03 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/?p=66370?d=20141215123743EST Posted by Carol Bowie, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., on Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Editor's Note:

Carol Bowie is Head of Americas Research at Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS). This post relates to draft policy changes to voting recommendations on independent chair shareholder proposals issued by ISS on October 15, 2014.

Calls for independent board chairs were the most prevalent type of shareholder proposal offered for consideration at U.S. companies’ annual meetings in 2014. As of June 30, 62 of these proposals have come to a shareholder vote, up from 55 resolutions over the same time period in 2013. Notably, the number of proposals calling for independent board chairs has more than doubled over the past five years. Under the current policy formulation, ISS recommended against 32 of these 62 proposals in 2014. In line with results from recent seasons, independent chair proposals received average support of 31.2 percent of votes cast at 2014 meetings. Only four of these proposals received the support of a majority of votes cast.

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