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Comments of Timothy Smith

April 5, 2011

invited response to

March 22, 2011 Forum Report:

Inviting Comments on Board Advisor's Views of "Fifth Analyst Call"

 

Timothy Smith, whose comments are presented below, is Senior Vice President of the Environment, Social and Governance ("ESG") Group in the Walden Asset Management division of  the Boston Trust & Investment Management Company. Mr. Smith is a member of the Forum's  Program Panel for the "E-Meetings" public interest program that has been addressing related communications issues.

 

 

Comments of

Timothy Smith

April 5, 2011

 

 

As one of the participants in the invitation to companies to have “Fifth Analyst Calls”, it is perplexing to see the fierce opposition by several law firms and a number of companies to what is in essence a simple request to dialogue by shareowners. Perhaps it is the fact that the invitation is couched in a new term, Fifth Analyst call, that has generated caution or defensiveness.

However hundreds of companies regularly respond positively to investor requests to talk, whether the issue be environmental, social or governance. Often such discussions result in changes in company policy or practice or increased disclosure. At the very least they improve the “acoustics” in a dialogue so both sides understand each other better.

And while it is a modest trend, we do see more Directors engaging in specific dialogues that are relevant to their roles and responsibilities.

So this request for a governance focused call before a company’s annual meeting builds nicely on these decades of discussions and brings them to a new level. What is the harm in discussing governance issues like staggered boards or separate Chair-CEO roles, or executive comp issues with the very directors who have responsibility for setting policies and oversight of these issues? Clearly we will all learn from each others perspectives.

I expect in a few years we will all look back and see that this initial defensiveness was misplaced and unnecessary.


Timothy Smith
Senior Vice President, Director of ESG Shareowner Engagement
Walden Asset Management, a division of Boston Trust & Investment Management
One Beacon Street, 33rd floor
Boston, MA. 02108
617-726-7155
tsmith@bostontrust.com
www.waldenassetmgmt.com

 

 

 

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