Vanguard's newly-released Investment Stewardship 2019 Annual Report, which captures its investment stewardship activities for the 12 months ended June 30th, reveals stepped-up engagement based in its four pillars of good governance - board composition, executive compensation, risk & strategy oversight, and governance structures (first reported on here) - all encompassed within an overarching long-termism theme.
Aside from noteworthy big picture statistics like the fact that Vanguard discussed board composition in nearly 80% of its 868 company engagements, met with independent directors in nearly half of its engagements, voted against 585 compensation committee members for failing to respond to shareholder feedback, and engaged with 258 companies in carbon-intensive industries, the report includes a number of instructive narratives in the form of engagement case studies and focused insights on - among other topics - sustainability, board diversity (also published on a stand-alone basis as reported here), and climate risk.
The US specifically fared relatively well as respects Vanguard's support for management proposals - averaging about 94% on director election, executive compensation, and governance structural (e.g., shareholder rights, board accountability) proposals; 91% on capitalization proposals; and 98% on M&A proposals.
The report includes a table listing each of the 868 companies engaged, along with the primary topics of engagement.
See this Bloomberg article: "Vanguard Meets With Leadership at More Companies," and additional information & resources on our Institutional Investors page. This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!