Boston Common submitted a shareholder proposal to Carlisle Companies seeking to engage them in a discussion on their approach to diversity at the board level. We are excited to announce, we have successfully withdrawn our resolution after positive discussion with the company.
Carlisle Companies was one of the companies targeted by the Thirty Percent Coalition for their lack of board diversity. For the second year running, The Coalition wrote to all S&P 1500 companies with no women or only one women on the board to make the case for greater gender diversity. The Thirty Percent Coalition promotes diversity in corporate boardrooms and advocated for gender diversity, including women of color, on public and private boards. We work in collaboration with the Thirty Percent Coalition to drive change and promote board diversity. Lisa Hayles, Principal at Boston Common serves on the Board of the Thirty Percent Coalition and leads our shareowner engagement on diversity and inclusion issues.
We successfully negotiated the withdrawal of a shareholder proposal on Boardroom Diversity after the company:
- Revised their Corporate Governance Guidelines to include a specific acknowledgement of the relevance of gender and racial diversity as one of many factors to consider in board appointments
- Promised to revise their proxy documents to reflect the inclusion of diversity as a desired qualification for new director nominees
- Committed to on-going dialogue in 2020 with us to discuss progress and potential next steps
Gender diversity and inclusion at the board level has positive effects on shareholder value. We believe that focusing on how individual board members’ backgrounds, skills, and qualifications complement each other, rather than all board members having similar backgrounds, reduces groupthink and propensity to engage in risky behaviors.
The information in this article should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
