The scope of financially material issues for companies continues to evolve. Just a few years ago, few would have imagined that artificial intelligence and its implications for operations would be the key strategic concern that it is today. At the same time, many traditional issues remain central to business management. Core responsibilities involving corporate boards such as CEO succession planning, overall board composition and alignment of board directors with needed skillsets have remained paramount, and warrant scrutiny from investors when inadequacies are identified. And amid evolving disclosure requirements, there remains room for improvement on corporate reporting of financially material environmental and social risks.
All of these elements—new and more established—came into play in the most recent proxy season via our NB Votes initiative.
NB Votes is an advance vote disclosure practice through which we regularly disclose vote intentions and rationales on multiple topics in advance of select shareholder meetings. NB Votes addresses a broad range of subjects across nine key governance and engagement categories. The votes pertain to what we consider financially material issues, and our voting intentions represent what we believe are in the best financial interests of our clients. In 2024, we disclosed our voting intentions and rationales on proposals at 39 meetings and opposed the company’s recommendation in 49% of them. This is a global effort, with 23% of our votes at meetings involving non-U.S. companies.
This paper provides key highlights from our 2024 voting season, looking in particular at published votes where we staked new ground or believe the issue was of particular relevance to our clients. This report should be viewed as part of a cumulative effort to enhance corporate practices, and we urge you to examine not only the full ledger of published 2024 votes, but also our record from past years as well.
