Vanguard’s 2021 Proxy Voting Policy identifies these primary updates:
- Board diversity - Director and committee accountability on board diversity consistent with its position articulated in its December 2020 position paper: "A continued call for boardroom diversity," which we reported on here (p6)
- Oversight failings - Vanguard will consider oversight of governance failures and/or material or manifested risks (including E&S risks) when determining an accountability vote against a director or committee for governance or risk oversight failures (p9).
- E&S Disclosure Proposals - Although Vanguard evaluates proposals on a case-by-case basis, it will likely support E&S disclosure-oriented proposals that support reasonable enhancements to, or that address shortcomings in, company practices relevant to oversight of related risks and strategies. The policy includes additional considerations specific to climate-related, workforce diversity, and corporate political activity proposals (p11-12).
See our recent reports here: “Vanguard Speaks on Corporate Political Activity Proposals” and “Vanguard: Director Overboarding, Board Composition Disclosure”; “Vanguard Reiterates Views on Executive Pay in a Crisis Context; “Vanguard: Shareholder Proposal Analysis”; and additional information & resources on our Institutional Investors page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!