Dueling DEI Proposals Put Boeing Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Intense scrutiny regarding the role of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in proxy voting has only intensified in the wake of the Trump Administration’s executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Meanwhile, a late shift in SEC guidance has injected uncertainty into the shareholder proposal exclusion process. Boeing’s upcoming annual meeting serves to illustrate the […]
Dimitri Zagoroff is a Senior Editor at Glass, Lewis & Co. This post is based on a Glass Lewis memorandum by Mr. Zagoroff and Courteney Keatinge.
Intense scrutiny regarding the role of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in proxy voting has only intensified in the wake of the Trump Administration’s executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Meanwhile, a late shift in SEC guidance has injected uncertainty into the shareholder proposal exclusion process.
Boeing’s upcoming annual meeting serves to illustrate the complex landscape that companies and their investors are being asked to navigate this proxy season. The agenda features two DEI-focused shareholder proposals with similar language but starkly different goals. Whereas Proposal 4 calls for additional reporting on the company’s approach to DEI and associated risks, Proposal 5 calls for a third-party civil rights audit to identify risks relating to the removal of DEI policies.
In this post, we discuss Boeing’s DEI predicament and the shareholder proposals on its AGM ballot, along with Glass Lewis’ approach to helping our investor clients assess them.
