2022 Shareholder Meeting Agenda

2022 Shareholder Meeting Priorities

Corporate boards are adapting to multiple pressures, including market forces, operational challenges, and stakeholder demands. Sustaining value over the long term requires boards to adjust how they evaluate risk and strategy. 

While capitalism remains the guiding principle, strategic priorities and ways of engaging with shareholders are changing. The influential CEO letters from institutional investors like BlackRock and State Street stress the urgent need for corporations to assess societal changes and adjust course in a forward-looking manner.

Boards also play a pivotal role in anticipating threats and responding to disruption – from talent gaps to drivers for improving diversity, equity and inclusion, health and wellness, and reimagined workplaces. Executive compensation is also under scrutiny, as leadership performance is increasingly tied to longer-term incentives for sustainable business practices.

With these factors in mind, BDO’s 2022 Shareholder Meeting Agenda addresses a variety of topics and key considerations for boards and management teams that are likely to arise at this year’s annual shareholder meetings, including:
 

Accountability to All Shareholders

• Engagement with shareholders
• Review of shareholder proposal trends
• Shareholder voting influences by institutional investors, proxy advisors and regulators
• Transparency in communications

All Eyes on ESG

• Evolving regulatory and reporting guidance for ESG
• Defining the board’s role in oversight
• Climate in focus

Addressing Talent and Diversity Goals

• Increasing employee engagement
• Influencers on building a diverse workplace
• Shifts in compensation scrutiny – defining goals and objectives

Emerging Threats and Disruptions

• Cyber risk
• Supply chain risk
• M&A risk
• Assessing corporate governance risk oversight

 

 

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