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Corporations control
your world.
Control them. |
Are you worried about global warming, bloated executive compensation, corporate money in politics, or oil companies sponsoring genocide in Darfur? We the people own the corporations responsible for all
this—through stock holdings, mutual funds and other investments. In theory,
we can change their behavior. Now there is an initiative to turn
that theory into practice.
Imagine you invest in a mutual fund. The fund has always
voted the shares it holds on your behalf, but today it offers you a
choice. You can have the fund continue to vote the shares, or the
proxy rights can be transferred to a third party of your choosing—perhaps
an environmental group, a trade union, or a professional
association.
Now suppose an on-line "proxy exchange" is established,
allowing millions of investors around the world to conveniently
transfer proxy rights to whomever they like. What will recipients of
all those proxy rights do with their new economic power? How will
corporations be transformed? Welcome to the Investor Suffrage
Movement. READ
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Latest News |
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June 17, 2008
Our monthly e-mail newsletter
Investor Suffrage News just launched.
This will
be our primary means of keeping in touch with the growing community
of people interested in the movement. If you aren't receiving the
newsletter,
sign
up today. |
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June 11, 2008
The Associated Press wrote a wonderful piece on the movement that
opened
"The proxy voting forms that many
investors toss aside could one
day become
prized armaments in
battles over how companies are run."
The
Chicago Tribune,
Boston Globe ,
Hartford Courant and other newspapers ran the story. |
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June 2, 2008
Our first round of proxy
transfer trials ended successfully. We attempted
five proxy assignments in the US and Canada. Three succeeded. We
learned valuable lessons from all five and plan to conduct additional
trials in the future. Thanks to all who participated! |
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April, 30, 2008
Clear Profit
and
Global Proxy Watch, two digital newsletters about
responsible investing and corporate governance, just ran articles
about
the Investor Suffrage Movement.
IR Magazine,
a print magazine for
investor
relations professionals, is running a piece in June. |
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April 21, 2008
The Investor Suffrage
Movement and our proxy transfer trials were
described on the corporate governance website
CorpGov.net. James
McRitchie, author and manager of the site, encouraged readers to
"consider joining what I think will be an important movement." |
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April, 16, 2008
Volunteers are conducting proxy transfer trials—granting
each other
proxy rights and attending shareholder meetings to test how broken
down the long-neglected proxy machinery is.
Read of one
eye-opening
experience from the trials, and then
sign
up to participate yourself.. |
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March 18, 2008
Investing $2,500 of seed
capital, Glyn Holton launched the Investor
Suffrage Movement with a
website isuffrage.org.
Goals for 2008 are
to incorporate as a non-profit and run initial tests of
volunteers
transferring proxy rights
among themselves. |
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June 5, 2007
At its Toronto meeting, the
International
Center for Pension
Management hosted Holton to address a group of
some 50 pension
executives on the concept of a proxy exchange.
Attendees conducted
roundtable discussions to brainstorm and develop
feedback. |
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March 8, 2007
Funded by the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund, Policy Innovations seeks
out and promotes practical
solutions to global economic challenges.
For one week, the concept of a
proxy exchange was the featured item
on the Policy Innovations
homepage. |
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November 1, 2006
The Financial Analysts
Journal is the world's leading peer-reviewed
practitioner
journal in finance. Glyn Holton published his concept of a
proxy
exchange in the journal's November/December 2006 issue.
That paper was the first time the concept appeared in
print. |
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