Please
join us for our upcoming November dinner event! We are hosting Rob
Main, CFA, Managing Partner and COO at Sustainable Governance Parners on
November 21st for an engaging evening with your fellow IR practitioners
to discuss proxy season and shareholder engagement. Rob will share
observations on how stewardship teams are evolving and their focus
areas, as well as the state of shareholder activism. We will have a mix
of presentation, conversation, and Q&A alongside dinner and drinks.
There will be plenty of time for networking prior to the event with
investor relations colleagues.
- Date: November 21, 2024
- Location: Maggiano's Little Italy, 4400 Sharon Rd, Charlotte, NC 28211
- Time: 6 - 8pm ET
- Networking 6:00pm to 6:30pm // Presentation and Discussion: 6:30pm to 8:00pm
- Topics:
- 2024 Off-Season Shareholder Engagement Themes
- Investors
are eager to engage – Investors are taking more meetings with
companies, especially if it is a large-cap company with a notable issue
and/or has been in the headlines
- Investors are not a monolith and are blazing different paths
- Mainstream
US Investors – They expect companies to have strong governance
practices and dialogue has centered on board composition, shareholder
rights, and executive compensation
- European
Investors - European investors continue to press companies on climate
strategy and it is rare that they are satisfied with the company’s
narrative, actions, and progress.
- E&S
Issue Activists – Domestic progressive investors and issue activists
remain dogged in their pursuit of strategic change, often with little
grounding in reality.
- Priority
Topics – Other hot topics include CEO succession planning, AI
oversight, and an expectation of responsiveness following a challenging
vote on voting matters
- Speaker:
Rob Main, CFA is a managing partner and COO at Sustainable Governance
Partners (Jasper Street). Rob focuses on board related matters, investor
engagement, executive compensation, ESG strategy, and issue &
financial activism. Rob helps our clients with critical ESG strategy
issues, board composition & disclosure, compensation governance, and
how to optimize engagements with key investors and other stakeholders.
He is an active industry thought leader and regularly speaks with
executives, directors, investors, and other market participants on
important corporate governance and sustainability topics. Before
founding Jasper Street, Rob was the Head of Investment Stewardship for
the Americas and Asia at Vanguard. His responsibilities included company
engagement, corporate governance research, policy development, proxy
voting, and ESG integration. He spoke on behalf of the firm’s
stewardship program regularly at industry conferences and events, and
actively contributed to thought leadership discussions and publications
in industry. Rob’s prior asset management industry experience included
roles as director within Vanguard’s investment manager due diligence
team, head of active equity product management, and leader of the firm’s
new product development efforts. Rob earned a B.S. from the University
of Richmond, and an M.B.A. from Villanova University. He is a CFA
charterholder and is a member of the CFA Society of Philadelphia. He has
served as adjunct faculty in Villanova University’s M.B.A. program and
has guest lectured at Harvard University, Drexel University, and at
Villanova’s Charles Widger School of Law. He currently serves on the
advisory board for the Markets Advisory Council of the Council of
Institutional Investors (CII), the Vinyl Sustainability Council, and
practicalesg.com. He enjoys racquet sports, is active in the Unionville
youth sports community, and once served as a ball boy for Martina
Navratilova.