James McRitchie Male Elk Grove, California United States: Share on Facebook Share Twitter

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Chevedden Sued Again: All Shareowners at Risk

Started Jan 21, 2011

Blank-Votes

Started Oct 10, 2010

Free USPX Training - Learn How to File Shareowner Proposals

Started Oct 10, 2010

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Welcome, James McRitchie!

Corporate Governance

James McRitchie has published CorpGov.net, a popular corporate governance portal since 1995. According to the Council of Institutional Investors, McRitchie’s 2002 SEC petition "re-energized" the debate over proxy access to nominate directors. His articles have appeared in At Work, Business Ethics, The Corporate Board, Corporate Secretary, and International Corporate Governance. McRitchie is frequently quoted in the press and has addressed audiences in Asia and Europe, funded by business associations, the Asian Development Bank and the U.S. State Department.

Interests: Recently, I’ve been working on systems to further empower retail shareholders such as ProxyDemocracy.org, iSuffrage.org, and VoterMedia.org. I also have a long-standing interest in creating more democratic corporate governance structures, with clearer avenues for participation and lines of accountability at corporations, funds and regulators.

James McRitchie's Blog

Model Proxy Access Proposal Template and Discussion Points Now Available

On November 10, 2010, the United States Proxy Exchange (USPX) released a Model Proxy Access Proposal that can be presented to corporations for a shareowner vote under SEC Rule 14a-8 to ensure that long-term shareowners have a reasonable, but not necessarily easy, means for including board nominations in the proxy materials those corporations distribute—so called “proxy access.”

The Model Proposal is designed to…

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Posted on November 10, 2011 at 2:23pm

Proxy Access for the 99%

The time has come for shareowners to be allowed to include their own nominees for corporate boards in the proxy materials their corporations send out every year—so-called "ballot" or "proxy access."

The current system—that only allows shareowners to vote for candidates nominated by the current board—is absurd. The SEC has finally reaffirmed shareowners' right to submit proposals to corporations that, if adopted, would allow proxy access for those corporations'… Continue

Posted on October 25, 2011 at 1:24pm — 1 Comment

Latest CEO Pay Outrage: Two Sets of Books – Sign Petition

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, announced they introduced legislation to end tax breaks for stock options. As pointed out by Paul Hodgson – Chief Communications Officer of The Corporate Library:

Since they are considered performance-related pay, stock option expense is…

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Posted on July 20, 2011 at 11:29am

Take Five Minutes to Vote SOP: USPX Solicits Feedback on Proxy Voting Guidelines

The United States Proxy Exchange (USPX) released draft guidelines for shareowners to use in making say-on-pay voting decisions. Comment letters are due by June 2nd to contact@proxyexchange.org. Please put “Say-on-Pay Guidelines” in the e-mail subject line. Letters…

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Posted on May 13, 2011 at 12:41pm

Take Action: Sixty Years of ShareOwner Rights at Risk

Your right to file a proxy without being hauled into court or having your proposal ignored is at risk. I urge members and readers of ShareOwners.org to raise the profile of the SEC's failure to act by sending e-mails to the Office of Chief Counsel at shareholderproposals@sec.gov and the Chairman at chairmanoffice@sec.gov. I also recommend you fill out the complaint form at … Continue

Posted on April 13, 2011 at 6:58pm — 2 Comments

Comment Wall (31 comments)

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At 6:57pm on October 11, 2010, Devin LaSalle said…: Hi James... I don't think I'll have much insight on the blank voting issue to contribute until I read up some more but in the meantime I do appreciate the invitation. Keep up the great work!

At 6:35pm on October 11, 2010, Michael R. Levin said…: Jim - superb letter, I don't think there's any other element of SEC regulation that you should cover. It might benefit from further emphasis on the idea that VIF can be subject to neglect or abuse, and therefore need regulation exactly the same as proxies.

At 8:05pm on October 10, 2010, michael lohnberg said…: not sure what it is that you want me to comment on. please clarify. shareholders .org does not seem to accept my password. which i registered previously.

At 7:31pm on October 10, 2010, Mark Boyko said…: Thank you for the information on these other groups. I will look at joining them.
Mark Boyko

At 5:54pm on October 10, 2010, mark isenberg said…: hi, you asked for comment but i don't follow this issue like you do so am not knowledgeable.I live in Banktown Charlotte where Wells Fargo and Bank of America are building up their tier capital reserves for the so called Basel reforms.In the meantime,credit remains tight and while shareholder rights are important it's hard to take the bigshot controllers of market movements seriously when small fry investors continue to get the dregs of the recovery if it is truly that. I see little progress for shareholders as long as Boards of Directors continue to mainly be the corporate officers of other firms who benefit from stock options at the detriment to small investors who watch portfolio returns barely get even if that from major 2008-09 losses. Let me know if and when the SEC starts prosecuting hedge funds and ceos.later,mark

At 1:30pm on October 10, 2010, Mark Boyko said…: I first became aware of shareowners.org by contacting a national association of pension funds members that referred this group to me. I have become an activist on corporate governance and transparency for investment markets. My own pension fund lost $25 billion in value after the downturn. As a result, my cost living provided in my pension is basically gone. Yet Wall Street and corporations made record profits.
Much of this I believe is due to lax regulation of financial markets and the continued excessive executive pay for dismal performance. It is nice to have forum to keep up with what is happening as well interacting with others in this area that affects so many people. The US Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable could care less about the small investor.

At 12:03pm on October 10, 2010, Heather Booth said…: As you may know, I've left Americans for Financial Reform with a great transition and Lisa Donner is now Director. You might contact her or those working on Shareowner issues (like Maureen Thompson) to see if Americans for Financial Reform might do something.

Heather

At 8:35am on July 14, 2010, Richard Liroff said…: James, thanks for your very warm support for IEHN's work

At 2:24pm on August 14, 2009, Stu Dalheim said…: James, thanks for the note of welcome. We have been busy preparing comments for 3 SEC proposals that are out there now. We are defintiely stepping up opur activity on governance.

Stu

At 10:35am on August 4, 2009, Gary Larkin said…: James: I am indeed the same Gary Larkin. The object of the blog, which isn't officially off the ground yet, is to inform board members and others in the corporate governance space about key research and news. I'm not sure we make it a policy to submit comment letters. However, we do come up with best practices on many different governance issues. I'll let you know when we are going live with the blog.

Also, would you be interested in being a guest contributor?

James McRitchie's Friends

James McRitchie's Discussions

Gifts Received

Welcome, James McRitchie!

Corporate Governance

James McRitchie's Blog

Comment Wall (31 comments)

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