ISS launched today its Annual Policy Survey for the 2020 proxy season.
Notable US-relevant coverage areas include:
- Board gender diversity - specifically, mitigating factors sufficient to avoid a negative ISS vote recommendation (commencing 2020) against the Nom/Gov chair (or other directors "as appropriate") of Russell 3000 and/or S&P 1500 boards without at least one woman director
- Director overboarding thresholds (non-executive directors and CEOs)
- Combined CEO/chairs - specifically, factors most indicative of the "need" for an independent board chair
- Multi-class capital structure sunset provisions
- Director accountability implications for companies "assessed to be not effectively reporting on or addressing [their] climate change risk" [emphasis added]
The survey closes on August 9, 2019, at 5pm ET. Institutional investors, companies, corporate directors and other market stakeholders are all encouraged to participate in the survey.
Access additional resources on our Proxy Advisors page.