In the past they blew us off, and now they're talking.
The amount of shareholder wealth that has been transferred from shareholders to CEOs has doubled in the past 10 years.
The symptom was executive pay being non-aligned with shareholder interests and our response was to create an accountability mechanism for directors.
Elections aren't structured in a way that gives shareholders a voice. The big theme is to hold boards and directors more accountable.
All the proposals we have filed, even if they are not directly pay-related, have been targeted at companies that have problematic pay practices. We think that undeserved executive compensation is probably the best indicator of a board that isn't accountable to its shareholders.
That was the first flexing of shareholder muscle and that shareholders were emphasizing the importance of splitting those roles.
The only leverage we have for bad pay is embarrassment.
Increased costs are being borne because they are filling huge deficiencies in the regulatory approach.
We think that no mutual fund has actually met the gold standard yet in terms of aggressively rooting out pay that's not deserved.
Disclosure is necessary but insufficient to restrain pay.
