2025 Proxy Season Preview
Shareholder proposals reached record levels in 2024, signaling continued shareholder engagement pressures for 2025. Companies should continue proactively engaging with shareholders, monitor policy updates, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements to navigate this dynamic landscape effectively. Key Insights The 2025 proxy season is expected to see sustained shareholder activism, evolving priorities in environmental and social […]
Posted by Matteo Tonello, The Conference Board, Inc., on Monday, March 10, 2025
Editor's Note:
Matteo Tonello is Head of Benchmarking and Analytics at The Conference Board, Inc. This post is based on a Conference Board memorandum by Ariane Marchis-Mouren, Senior Researcher, Corporate Governance at The Conference Board.
Shareholder proposals reached record levels in 2024, signaling continued shareholder engagement pressures for 2025. Companies should continue proactively engaging with shareholders, monitor policy updates, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements to navigate this dynamic landscape effectively.
Key Insights
- The 2025 proxy season is expected to see sustained shareholder activism, evolving priorities in environmental and social (E&S) proposals, and a renewed focus on corporate governance.
- Companies continue to face competing pressures from shareholder proposals both for and against environmental, social & governance (ESG) topics, with anti-ESG filings increasing in prominence.
- As some investors deprioritize E&S issues amid political shifts, core governance topics such as executive compensation are expected to face heightened scrutiny this proxy season.
- Average support for shareholder proposals peaked in 2021 and steadily declined through 2024; an exception is governance proposals, which are back to 2021 levels.
- With “proposal fatigue” growing among institutional investors, companies can strengthen investor support by providing detailed cost-benefit analyses of shareholder proposals.
