Governance Crowd Attends Proxy Voting and Governance Confab, While New Yorkers Celebrate Boys and Girls Scouts
Welcome to a Special Weekend Edition of the GPP Newsletter!
This week, members of the corporate governance ecosystem took a break from election breakdowns and Nvidia drama and headed downtown to the NYSE for the 2nd Annual Proxy Voting and Corporate Governance Conference. The confab is sponsored by Vanguard, NYU’s Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance, and the NYSE, the event drew more than 100 participants across the investor, advisor and academic worlds.
The conference came amid a continued rise in trends around pass-through voting and standing voting instructions. Vanguard announced another expansion of Investor Choice, its pass-through voting program, bringing all U.S. equity index products into the fold by early 2027. The program now covers $8.2 trillion in eligible assets. John Galloway, Vanguard’s Global Head of Investor Engagement, said the firm’s conviction is that “corporate governance is stronger when all investors have a voice.” More on the program’s growth here.
The conference’s three panels were held under Chatham House Rule, so won’t go into details. PJT Camberview’s Abe Friedman moderated the mirror voting panel, with participants Rob Jackson from NYU School of Law, Robert Bishop from Duke Law & Fuqua School of Business, Dorothy Lund from Columbia Law School, Jan van Eck from VanEck, and Scott Grinsell from Elliott Investment Management. Keep a look out for a new paper by Dorothy and her comrade Eric Talley of Columbia Law.
Wachtell’s Lina Tetelbaum led the discussion on pass-through and standing voting programs, featuring Vanguard’s John Croke and Broadridge’s Michael Tae, Georgetown Law’s Jon Zytnick, and S&C’s June Hu.
The last panel was on AI and proxy voting, moderated by Yale Law John Morley and included ISS’s Andrew Schultz, Pennant AI’s Ryan Nowicki Stewart, Proxywise AI’s Alexander Kaltenböck, and Paul Weiss’s Carmen Lu. Overall, AI is already helping every party digest large volumes of data faster, so information and engagement will rise, but any real shift in outcomes will play out over the longer term. Alexander said on his LinkedIn, “Expect asset managers and owners to rethink their workflows fast and they head into 2027 proxy season.”
Also last week, the GPP team had a great night at the Greater New York Scouting Financial Tribute Awards Celebration, held November 11th in support of Scouting America’s programs for thousands of New York city children. This year’s John C. Whitehead Awards honored Rob Dugger and Carter Simpson, carrying forward the legacy of the late Eagle Scout, business leader and philanthropist. It was a wonderful evening supporting programs that instill leadership, service and a sense of community in New York City’s next generation. The scouts who spoke were beyond impressive and we would hire any of them as new interns—one high school student spoke six languages!
Lastly, we send our condolences to the Zabars’ family on the passing of patriarch Stanley Zabar and his iconic appetizers and housewares store. His obituary is below; May his memory be a blessing. Go buy some nova and shmeer this weekend and think of Stanley and his brother Saul who passed earlier this year.
Have a great weekend and Shabbat Shalom,
GPP Team
ACTIVISM
The Financial Times: Whitbread Investors Slap Down Activist Corvex’s Bid for Board Seat
Whitbread received shareholder backing against activist investor Corvex whose attempt to gain a board seat was rejected with a staggering 91% voting against the proposal in a vote that allows the company to move ahead with its five–year turnaround plan. Read More
Bloomberg: Devon Activist Holders Ramp Up Pressure to Sell While CEO Calls It a Distraction
Activists Toms Capital Management and Kimmeridge Energy Management Co. each expressed their disappointment with the energy company’s decision not to pursue further asset sales following its strategic review, with the latter arguing “a sale of the entire company should be pursued.” Read More
M&A
Bloomberg: Billionaire Brad Jacobs Leads $1 Billion CKX Lands Deal
QXO CEO and serial entrepreneur Brad Jacobs is kicking off his next venture with the announcement of a $1 billion dollar investment in CKX Lands Inc., which will be used as an investment vehicle in an industry yet to be determined. Jacobs will be Chairman and CEO of the new company while maintaining his roles at QXO. Read More
Bloomberg: Morgan Stanley to Buy Vinyl Equity in Wealth Expansion
Morgan Stanley’s acquisition of the fintech will allow the bank to bring certain corporate stock planning capabilities in-house, including the transfer of shares from its corporate clients to their shareholders. Read More
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia’s CEO
After rampant speculation regarding Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, which ramped up in late October when The New York Times reported that he was a target of a Chinese spy plot, Nvidia announced that Huang had resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board, effective immediately. On Sunday, the story explored after multiple reports (including from CNBC), which Huang later confirmed in a letter, regarding the first affair were published. Thursday morning’s announcement brought two pieces of major Nvidia governance news: board member and former Synopsys CEO Harvey Jones was named as Nvidia’s first-ever board chair and CFO Collette Kress was named as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent successor.
IPO
Bloomberg: Anthropic’s IPO Is Said to Be Multiple Times Oversubscribed
“Anchor-size” orders have reportedly led the $1.4 trillion IPO to be oversubscribed multiple times over. Anthropic’s filings show it is looking to raise up to $90.4 billion through the listing and a private placement. Read More
The Financial Times Alphaville: The Index Impact of SpaceX’s Record-Shattering IPO
After a very public and highly discussed IPO in the summer, Alphaville cites a new Goldman Sachs report that despite all of the discussions regarding the company’s potential impact on the broader stock market, the actual effect was much less than expected in a proof point that most single companies does not have an overarching impact on the overall market. Read More
FROM OUR DESK TO YOURS
We love New York in the autumn even if the weather is a bit cold and wet. There are two events that we have our eye on this weekend. To start, we will be headed to the Murray’s Cheese Annual Gruyere Crack + Fondue Party from 2-6 PM this Saturday. The food along with some hot cocoa and sticky toffee pudding will keep anyone happy before their 2nd Annual Holiday Window Reveal at 5 PM.
Finally, moving uptown, we are looking forward to the New York Public Library’s Declaring America: 1776 and Beyond event in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. A celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, this event, which is open until January 10th, focuses on New York City’s unique role as a literal and intellectual battleground in the riveting first months of the American Revolution. A busy weekend is ahead but we are looking forward to it and hope to see you there.
OPEN TABS
- The New York Times: Stanley Zabar Has Died. He Managed the Books, and the Slaw, at an N.Y.C. Landmark.
- The New York Times: King’s Lost Draft of ‘I Have a Dream’ Emerges From a Desk Drawer
- The Athletic: College Football Playoff Expansion Winners and Losers, From Fans to Bowls to the Big Ten
- The Financial Times: The Italians Living Atop One of the World’s ‘Most Dangerous Volcanoes’
- The Associated Press: This Ocean Liner was the World’s Fastest. It’s Being Sunk to Make the Largest Artificial Reef
UPCOMING EVENTS
- November 18: DealBook Summit, New York, NY
- November 20: Columbia Law School Millstein Center Conference on M&A and Corporate Governance, New York, NY
- December 8: Bloomberg Activism Forum, New York, NY
