PROXY COUNTDOWN cover art

All Episodes

PROXY COUNTDOWN — 76 episodes

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Title
1

Director vote gaps, plus manipulating pay at Costar and “social independence” at Veeva

2

Declassify Lululemon, plus anti-ESG losses and big dumb payouts

3

Board scenario models at Walmart, plus Amgen won’t move your piano

4

Business Roundtable Boards, plus Victoria’s Secret and vote roundups

5

Aflac’s Atlanta crew, plus vote avoidance at AIG and Ball Corp’s vote prediction

6

Blame at Wells Fargo’s AGM, plus Ingles governance joke, Cook out, Texas reject

7

Johnson & Johnson’s big swing. Plus, DOW’s new CEO, Snap layoffs, Meta man board

8

Adobe’s succession vote, plus Paramount’s whistleblower, BP’s new CEO, AI’s proxy tilt

9

Vote with data top list, plus equity awards, ballooning pay, and activists like dudes

10

Live from CII Spring Conference 2026: Bertram, sausage sandwiches, and Starbucks

11

Vanguard’s fossil fuel settlement, plus early bonus season and more companies down to 2F

12

Read the fine print! Plus, Meta mines for Trump friendlies, McRitchie is the only winner, and governance news

13

Paramount’s dual class board is a warning sign for merger, plus CEO retention bonanza

14

2026 Predictions with Ann Lipton and Mike Levin of the Shareholder Primacy podcast

15

SEC pushes voting against directors, plus Novo Nordisk and executive shifts at Walmart

16

Zombies, krakens, mummies, and the monster mash of horrifying directors

17

Surveys: directors want you to vote them out, plus a vote out at John Wiley and female replacement theory

18

Proxy Season Bets, plus Oracle’s 4x CEOs and the rise of Executive Vice Chairs

19

Tesla proxy breakdown, plus director adds and U-Haul’s "do you like us, check yes or no”

20

2025 Proxy Season Review: Unelected directors, non profit interlocks, illogical voting, and SHP kabuki theater

21

Adding directors right after the AGM, plus Hoag stays, pay for bottom quartile, and attendance bites again

22

Founder boards, plus Zaslav’s payday, and the death of shareholder proposals

23

Director attendance, plus Jay Hoag’s big vote and activist dissonance at Penn, Victoria’s Secret

24

CEO succession risk, plus Mangless vs. Zevra lessons, and UnitedHealth’s investor confidence

25

Netflix and independence, plus Deckers Outdoors, Ball CFO, and shareholder vote disconnects

26

WSJ’s Top 250 directors, plus Exxon’s vote, Elliott’s win, and Tesla’s new director

27

Verizon and audit committee problems, plus Kohl’s, Chevedden premium, and Phillips 66

28

Blackrock’s board conflict, plus 97 votes and fun perks for retirements

29

Anointed director at American Express, plus why caving to Robby Starbuck is bad for business at Harley Davidson

30

Corporate democracy with Sarah Haan

31

Director “party line” voting, plus nom committee failures and Disney investors are asleep

32

ISS flips on Disney, plus CEO pay tweaks, Starbucks results, and low CEO pay ratios

33

Non-profit board interlocks are a widespread, plus Kroger’s CEO fired, and Indivior’s overhauled activist board

34

Tariff board survivors, plus Boeing’s board loss and results at Apple and Deere

35

Copy/paste anti-ESG proposals at Apple and Deere, plus guest Mike Levin on activism in 2025

36

Director votes on “merit”, relocation cost to median employee ratios, and long-tenured lead directors

37

Tyson Foods merits votes against, T-Mobile’s new COO’s family gets perks, anti-DEI proposal fails

38

Scott’s Miracle Gro, Becton Dickinson, Visa, Jacob’s Solutions, Walgreens

39

Think like an activist: Korea Tobacco & Ginseng with Sunghyun Lee at Flashlight Capital

40

Forget zombie directors, worry about vampires, mummies, and Frankensteins

41

How much should a director get paid? Lam Research, plus WiseTech’s board capture and Southwest’s board shakeup

42

Is Parker Hannifin the most parochial board ever? Also, Pfizer’s activist “defense” and Champions Oncology’s superstar

43

How should we evaluate board skills quiz, plus Pfizer and Air Products activists, and Zoom’s happy CFO

44

The Big Vote at P&G, plus Commerzbank’s glass cliff, Elliott vs. Southwest, Masimo’s loss, and ConAgra’s oops

45

The Big Vote at FedEx (the Fred Smith show), plus 23andMe is now just me, and shakeups at Nike

46

The Big Vote at Darden, plus Starboard shakes Southwest, Norfolk Southern’s CEO problem, and a board draft

47

The Big Vote at General Mills, plus Starbucks poaches a burrito and Intel is pre-activist concerned

48

Proxy Season Preview: Board knowledge and skill votes, plus board appointment fails, fake CEOs, and activist updates

49

2023-24 PROXY AWARDS, including best performing director, best proxy match, and board you want a beer with

50

Top and bottom director performance, plus Southwest’s proxy fight and director perks

51

The Big Vote at Snowflake, plus Tyson gets replaced, a zombie at Veeva, and declassifying wins

52

The Big Vote at Delta Airlines, plus Musk’s vote “leak”, and Eli Lily and Alphabet’s CFO trade

53

The Big Vote at Target, plus Musk’s blackmail, investors not named Mark, and director trade-ups

54

The BIG Vote at Tesla, plus investors keep forgetting who sets pay and Crown Castle’s proxy win

55

The Big Vote at Meta, or how to deal with dictators, plus updates from Exxon and Tesla

56

The Big Vote at Chevron, Exxon, and Shell, plus a big AGM roundup

57

How to use data for the height of proxy season, plus Paramount and Norfolk updates

58

The Big Vote at Norfolk Southern, plus Exxon’s shareholder fight and Keurig’s CEO ping pong

59

The Big Vote at Abbott Laboratories, plus Tesla’s shareholder litmus test and the Free Float bump at Disney

60

The Big Vote at Airbus, plus Peltz loses and Calhoun walks from Caterpillar

61

The Big Vote at Carnival, plus why a “shakeup” at Disney doesn’t mean Peltz

62

The Big Vote at McCormick, plus Disney vs. ISS and Glass Lewis, and say goodbye to a longtime underperforming director

63

The BIG vote at DISNEY, plus boomerang at Under Armour, “board observer” at LKQ, and Sonos’ vote against CEO

64

The Big Vote at Analog Devices, plus Trian’s Disney white paper and JB Hunt’s unorthodox new board roles

65

The Big Vote at Hologic against the legacy of Icahn, plus Norfolk Southern’s gaslight

66

The Big Vote at Qualcomm, plus Zuckerberg’s new board toys, and the social media proxy wars at Disney

67

The Big Vote at Starbucks, plus female CEO hiring “spree” at Fortune 500, and results at Emerson and Tyson

68

The Big Vote at Deere & Company, plus Arjuna vs. Exxon, duck proxy advice, and Nixon-era directors at O’Reilly Automotive

69

The Big Vote at Siemens, plus Julie Robertson’s hire/firing and the Strive of Europe goes after BP

70

The Big Vote at Apple, plus The Rock fills a chair, Starbucks’ empty chair, and vote results at Visa and Costco

71

The Big Vote at Tyson Foods, plus the end of a Facebook era, BP’s boring CEO pick, and Trian strategy vs. Disney strategy

72

The Big Vote at Becton Dickinson, plus Starbucks board growth on the trade wire and investor policy votes at RingCentral

73

The Big Vote at Walgreens. Plus, more Disney board drama, CFOs pushed out, and vote roundups

74

The Big Vote at Costco, plus bald men run Nikola, Petlz trolls Disney with board pick, lazy shareholders, and golden "hello again!" award season

75

Netflix flips pay, ISS and GL confuse at Palo Alto, Microsoft AGM results, and The Big Vote at Visa

76

Disney, AIG, Arista board moves, proxy cage matches at Starbucks, Disney, Wendy's, and Autozone's game time vote picks