{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-article-js","path":"/blog/106/expert-series:-insights-for-the-upcoming-proxy-season","result":{"data":{"strapiArticle":{"title":"EXPERT SERIES: Insights for the Upcoming Proxy Season","content":"Welcome to a new segment in our RIR issue, the **Expert Series!** For the next few issues we will leverage the expertise of seasoned professionals, offering valuable insights into the pivotal issues affecting investor relations and corporate governance.\n\nOur inaugural expert, [Michael R. Levin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelrlevin/), joins us to share his wealth of knowledge. Michael is a distinguished investor, corporate executive, and management consultant, with nearly three decades of experience in investing, corporate finance, strategic planning, and risk management. His extensive background includes board directorships and an authoritative understanding of proxy contests, alongside an in-depth knowledge of the SEC's new universal proxy rule.\n\nWe've engaged Michael to shed light on three crucial questions that can arm IROs with essential knowledge for the forthcoming proxy season:\n\n**Looking back on the 2023 proxy year, did the universal proxy card (UPC) play as big of a role as experts were anticipating?**\n*Michael R. Levin*: In some ways it did, in that it helped activists succeed in proxy contests more. In particular, activists and companies settled contests faster and more often, with activists gaining more board seats than before. In other ways it did not, particularly in the number of proxy contests, which remained at about the same levels as in past years.\n\n**Did you see an increase in individual investors as activists? If so, can you share some of the more notable situations?**\n*Michael R. Levin*: We saw some interesting proxy contests where individual investors prevailed decisively, say when Dan Mangless [won several board seats](https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Activist-Wins-Another-Vote-Under-Universal-Proxy-.html?soid=1102906894819&aid=Dr3khANskkY) at ZVRA. As an individual investor, he had no evident experience in activism, and it looks like universal proxy helped him. Otherwise, individual investors have tended to pursue precatory proposals rather than proxy contests, and this continued in 2023, as almost no other retail investors went through the considerable process of nominating director candidates and soliciting proxies.\n\n**Did you notice a pickup in Activist campaigns with an ESG component? What key takeaways can you share?**\n*Michael R. Levin*: ESG has of course grown in importance to AGMs, and we’ve seen more precatory proposals than ever before. We did not, though, see a significant increase in proxy contests based on promoting one or another ESG proposal. A few observers, including us, expected universal proxy to encourage the ESG investor community to nominate directors. Instead, these investors decided to wait a year and see how universal proxy worked out for other activists. We’ll see what happens in 2024, then.\n\nCheck out the [recent piece](https://myemail.constantcontact.com/The-Five-Big-Decisions-for-Activists-Under-Universal-Proxy.html?soid=1102906894819&aid=AzsVi5aI__Y) Michael and his team put together that summarizes **\"the five most significant decisions an activist will need to make.\" **This piece is helpful in providing how UPC changed the levels of engagement for activists.\n\nWe thank Michael for sharing his thoughts on this topic. We hope you find this Series helpful as you prepare for the upcoming proxy season.\n\nStockperks remains the unrivaled leader in retail investor engagement. Let's schedule time to discuss how Stockperks is helping companies connect with retail investors. Email me today!\n\n","strapiId":106,"created_at":"2023-11-08T14:10:39.000Z","updated_at":"2023-11-08T14:10:39.000Z","published_at":"2023-11-08","category":{"name":"Thought Piece"},"image":{"publicURL":"/static/04aeabc23b43eb5d64fef5a36842f5eb/6bc2c354d035301733bd086ee277a503.png"},"author":{"fullName":"Agnies Watson"}}},"pageContext":{"id":106}},"staticQueryHashes":["1520233112","2983869003","3649515864"]}