How Shareholders Can Make a Difference

“Shareholders are fed up about corporate excesses,” Laura Berry writes in a guest column for the Des Moines (Iowa) Register. “But they aren’t waiting for Congress to make changes.”

At the annual meetings of Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., for example, more than 30 percent of shareholders have supported resolutions demanding the “companies provide more information before trading in derivatives, the financial instruments blamed for fueling the financial crisis.”

Berry, the executive director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, says the scores of shareholder resolutions on topics such as executive compensation can force — or shame — companies into making changes. 

In urging shareholders to cast their ballots, by the way, she praises ProxyDemocracy as an excellent website “that can help you understand the issues” on corporate ballots.

For the full column, click here.