Global Trends in Board-Shareholder Engagement

Since 2007, shareholder requests for special meetings with the board have increased rapidly. While the annual general meeting is the main channel of communication between shareholders and the board, shareholders, particularly institutional investors, believe that AGMs are too infrequent and don’t provide sufficient content to address their concerns. This report discusses potential benefits and complexities of the board-shareholder engagement process, reviews global trends in engagement practices, provides insights into engagement activities at U.S. companies, and highlights developments in the use of technology to facilitate engagement. It also provides perspectives from institutional investors on the design of an effective engagement process.