Glass Lewis’ 2023 Proxy Voting Policy Guidelines are now available for the United States and Canada, Continental Europe, and the UK. In addition, we have released our 2023 Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Initiatives Policy Guidelines, covering shareholder proposals. Guidelines for additional markets will follow over the coming weeks.

You can access our upcoming 2023 Proxy Voting Policy Guidelines here.

About the Guidelines

The policy guidelines set out Glass Lewis’ approach to assessing all topics on the annual general meeting agenda, covering everything from director elections, executive compensation, boards and balance sheet management to ESG issues. They are reviewed at least annually and tailored to reflect the governance and regulatory environments of each market, while keeping a global perspective in mind. Specific focus is paid to recent and pending changes to rules, requirements and market practices, along with any other factors that could materially affect shareholder rights or stewardship more generally.

Our 2023 market guideline updates reflect the trending topics at the top of mind for investors and issuers, including cyber risk, oversight of climate and other E&S risks, and board diversity and composition. 

North America

  • In the U.S. and Canada, we have introduced new policies to address cyber risk, board oversight of environmental and social issues, and changing regulations around director exculpation.
  • We have also expanded our policies on board composition and both gender and underrepresented community diversity, including related disclosure, to reflect evolving state and regulatory rules and market practices.

Environmental, Social & Governance Initiatives

  • We have introduced a new voting policy on board accountability for climate-related issues at companies with material risk exposure, and made updates to our approach on proposals requesting racial equity audits and severance payments.
  • The updated guidelines also include a discussion regarding disclosure of shareholder proponents at U.S. companies.

Europe & United Kingdom

  • Our 2022 policy guidelines outline our approach to board oversight of E&S issues, and clarify our methodology for assessing director commitments, and the situations where we would consider a director or executive to be overcommitted.
  • In addition, the Europe guidelines outline our position on new and existing multi-class share structures, and our views on the importance of detailed vote result disclosure.

Our 2023 Proxy Voting Policy Guidelines are available here.

For more information on Glass Lewis’ approach to proxy research, contact:

GROW@glasslewis.com (Institutional Investors) | ENGAGE@glasslewis.com (Public Companies)