Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC will wait till early next year, 2010, for any decision regarding making it easier for shareholders to access the proxy.
Naturally the folks at the US Chamber of Commerce are up in arms that shareholder investors would like to exercise their ownership rights and nominate people to corporate boards who may actually make a difference at a company. If they’re concerned about the “activist types” gaining access to the boardroom, why worry? Do they think that these board members will march companies like Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, GM, Chrysler, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac off of a cliff? THAT’S ALREADY HAPPENED! Did it take “activist” do-gooders and tree-huggers or Greenpeace to destroy some of this country’s best companies? Nope; all it took was no-nothing, do-nothing board-members, megalomaniac executive managers, and spineless professional investment managers. If you’re wondering why I’ve thrown in the investment managers it’s because they’re the largest shareholders of stock in America and all this big, ugly stuff happened while these companies were in “our” retirement portfolios under their supervision and guidance; sorry if this offends some folks, but all of you need to share in the blame.
As for BofA and their lack of succession planning, I’m shocked, but not very surprised. I know they have a lot of new members on that board now, but this just points, again, to the dysfunctional nature of corporate boards. Why, when a country is awash in educated and seemingly intelligent people, does this level of failure in planning occur?
Ken Lewis has been under extraordinary pressure for a year. He’s been scorned and disabused at nearly every turn since this financial calamity was sprung upon the nation and BofA was forced to acquire Merrill Lynch. One would think that succession planning would have been raised as a talking point for no other reason than that the enormous stress put upon Mr. Lewis could have killed him! And the US Chamber of Commerce wants to defend this dysfunction?
Memo to SEC: Put down the fiddle, Rome is burning.
Naturally the folks at the US Chamber of Commerce are up in arms that shareholder investors would like to exercise their ownership rights and nominate people to corporate boards who may actually make a difference at a company. If they’re concerned about the “activist types” gaining access to the boardroom, why worry? Do they think that these board members will march companies like Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, GM, Chrysler, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac off of a cliff? THAT’S ALREADY HAPPENED! Did it take “activist” do-gooders and tree-huggers or Greenpeace to destroy some of this country’s best companies? Nope; all it took was no-nothing, do-nothing board-members, megalomaniac executive managers, and spineless professional investment managers. If you’re wondering why I’ve thrown in the investment managers it’s because they’re the largest shareholders of stock in America and all this big, ugly stuff happened while these companies were in “our” retirement portfolios under their supervision and guidance; sorry if this offends some folks, but all of you need to share in the blame.
As for BofA and their lack of succession planning, I’m shocked, but not very surprised. I know they have a lot of new members on that board now, but this just points, again, to the dysfunctional nature of corporate boards. Why, when a country is awash in educated and seemingly intelligent people, does this level of failure in planning occur?
Ken Lewis has been under extraordinary pressure for a year. He’s been scorned and disabused at nearly every turn since this financial calamity was sprung upon the nation and BofA was forced to acquire Merrill Lynch. One would think that succession planning would have been raised as a talking point for no other reason than that the enormous stress put upon Mr. Lewis could have killed him! And the US Chamber of Commerce wants to defend this dysfunction?
Memo to SEC: Put down the fiddle, Rome is burning.
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