Given the late season announcement last week from ISS on its board diversity voting policies, it’s not that surprising that Glass Lewis also has now announced changes to its voting policies in this area. Glass Lewis has sent a memo to clients – with further guidance coming on March 3rd after it hears feedback from its investor clients and after the DOJ issues a report on how it intends to discourage private-sector DEI efforts.
According to this Reuters article, the Glass Lewis memo states that, in light of the Trump Administration’s orders on DEI, Glass Lewis has now decided that it “may in fact determine that it is in our clients’ best interest for Glass Lewis to change its approach to voting guidance on board elections and DEI-related shareholder proposals at U.S. companies, particularly in areas where this guidance considers gender, ethnic, and racial diversity of the board.”
All of these developments are hard to process so late in the proxy season, but they are inevitable given the fast pace of change brought on by the initial days of this new Administration…
Authored by
Broc Romanek