Advertisement
Advertisement
"The problem is, if you have one choice, it's not really an election." —James McRitchie
What makes a corporation a corporation is that it is owned by shareholders, who may own a single piece of stock or a much larger chunk of the company. In theory, these shareholders are represented by a board of directors, whose duties range from choosing and setting the salary of the CEO to approving the annual budget and stock options of the entire corporation and its employees. The shareholders elect the board of directors, and the board members are usually shareholders themselves too.But who they're electing is where it gets troublesome. Board nominees are generally hand-picked by the directors in committees, and, on most boards, a director can re-nominate him or herself (usually himself) with just one share of the company. Sometimes, the nominee doesn't even need to pass a majority vote by shareholders to be appointed.
Advertisement
A common complaint against boards is that these bodies are made up almost exclusively of old white men. According to one study from 2013, women held only 16.9 percent of corporate board positions; black women, a mere 3.2 percent. In 2010, there was not a single Latino woman on a Fortune 500 company's board. A recent New York Times study found that more men with my first name controlled large companies than the entire opposite sex. And these bodies are only getting whiter, while the rest of the country is doing the opposite.A recent New York Times study found that more men with my first name controlled large companies than the entire opposite sex.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
"As a shareowner, I want to know that the board is focused on the company, not whether or not the CEO gets 'taken care of.'" —Scott Stringer
As comptroller of New York City, Scott M. Stringer has what most of us would call leverage. His office is in charge of five municipal public pension funds that total over $160 billion in assets. As a result, the city owns enormous amounts of stock in major corporations—New York claims over 9.6 million shares of Exxon-Mobil, for example, worth a combined $910 million.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement