ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Trade Wire - BUY/SELL
Top Stories:
proxy countdown_trade wire_2025 - Google Sheets
128 filings
The headlines:
PayPal stole HP’s CEO by promoting Chair Enrique Lores to CEO, replacing Alex Chriss; HP director Bruce Broussard appointed Interim CEO
Walt Disney: Parks Man Josh D’Amaro promoted to CEO; former CEO Bob Iger remains as director and Senior Advisor until 12/31/26
Walden gets golden hello again one-time equity award with $5.26M target value and $3.75M base salary (more than new CEO's $2.5M)
Gender Ratio: In this specific data set, approximately 75% of the new appointments are men, while 25% are women.
Meta Platforms, Inc. (META): $2M cash and $60M equity golden hello
appointed former director Dina Powell McCormick as Vice Chair and President
best known for having been the United States Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy to President Donald Trump
Married to GOP senator Dave McCormick, former CEO of Bridgewater Associates
On the board of Robin Hood, a charitable organization which attempts to alleviate problems caused by poverty, along with Jeff Bezos's brother Mark, DJ D-Sol, and Emeritus Director Larry Fink, et al.
JABIL INC (JBL): Mark T. Mondello resigned Executive Chair; Consulting Agreement until January 22, 2028: will provide advisory and strategic services when requested for a monthly consulting fee of $145,833.00
Median employee: $12,144 144:1 consulting ratio “when requested”
Based on math of typical consulting agreements he will make approximately $14,583 per hour
CEOs becoming Chair and/or former CEOs sticking around to be Executive Chair:
Genuine Parts CEO Will Stengel will be Chair" (following the retirement of Paul D. Donahue).
U.S. Bancorp: "CEO Gunjan Kedia to become Chair" (following the resignation of Andrew Cecere).
DTE Energy: "CEO David Slater appointed Chair" (as Robert Skaggs, Jr. transitions to a regular director role
Crane Co (CR): COO Alejandro (Alex) Alcala promoted to CEO; former CEO/Chair Max Mitchell remains as Exec Chair
DONALDSON Co: COO Richard B. Lewis promoted to CEO; former CEO/Chair Tod E. Carpenter remains as Exec Chair
AMPHENOL CORP /DE/ (APH): CEO R. Adam Norwitt to become Chair
(former CEO) Current Chair Martin H. Loeffler resigning
<PROXY CAGE MATCH BUMPER>
PROXY CAGE MATCH
Still nothing crazy
<VOTE RESULTS BUMPER>
VOTE RESULTS TABLE
35 meetings market cap over $1 billion
9 total SHPs: 4 at Visa
Zscaler, Inc. (ZS): declassify 51% yes (McRitchie)
MICRON TECHNOLOGY: 43% YES special meeting rights
JABIL INC (JBL) 1 38% YES Act by Written Consent
Visa
independent chair 16% YES: National Legal and Policy Center
act by written consent 33% YES: John Chevedden
report on AI-Driven Online Sexual Exploitation 8% YES: Bowyer Research
inclusion ROI audit 0.9% YES: National Center for Public Policy Research
Same anti-DEI thing at Intuit 0.8% YES
9 pay over 10% NO
Only one over 20%:
BITMINE IMMERSION TECHNOLOGIES: 25% NO PAY: ~$275M pay package for Executive Chair over 5 years: only voting on this
Directors
JABIL INC (JBL): John C. Plant 84% NO; N. V. “Tiger” Tyagarajan 70% NO
Messrs. Plant and Tyagarajan attended less than 75% of the aggregate Board and committee meetings on which they each served during fiscal year 2025 due to coinciding professional responsibilities.
Still on board
In accordance with the Company’s director resignation policy, on January 23, 2026, Mr. Plant (2016-) and Mr. Tyagarajan (2024-) offered their respective resignations. In accordance with the Resignation Policy, the Nominating and Governance Committee will recommend whether to accept or reject their respective resignations. The Board will act on the Committee’s recommendation and publicly disclose its decision and rationale within 90 days following the Committee’s recommendation.
Tiger is on this committee
Anousheh Ansari (2016-)
LD Steven Raymuns (1996-)
15 others over 10%
Highest non-attendance: Zscaler (classified): Andrew Brown 10% no; Scott Darling 27% no; David Schneider 18% no
Star of the week: Robert V. Vitale 26% NO at BellRing Brands AND 17% NO at Energizer Holdings and Overboarding policy:
Energizer: “We understand that some of our shareholders may have policies or practices that differ from Energizer’s regarding the number of boards on which a director who is also a current public company named executive officer may serve.”
BellRing: “Since he began serving as BellRing’s executive chairman in 2019, Mr. Vitale’s service on the boards of Post and Energizer Holdings, Inc. has not impacted the discharge of his duties as chairman of BellRing. As such, our Board of Directors does not believe that Mr. Vitale’s other board commitments have interfered or will interfere with Mr. Vitale’s discharge of his duties as chairman of our Board of Directors.”
<THE BIG VOTE BUMPER>
THE BIG VOTE PICKS
DAMION
Upcoming Meetings February 9-
AGM Date
SHPs
Company
Market Cap (USD)
02/11/26
0
PTC Inc. (PTC)
$17.99 Billion
02/11/26
0
Central Garden & Pet (CENT)
$2.20 Billion
02/10/26
0
Rockwell Automation (ROK)
$48.33 Billion
02/10/26
0
Moog Inc. (MOG.A)
$10.71 Billion
02/09/26
0
Mueller Water Products (MWA)
$4.31 Billion
02/09/26
0
J&J Snack Foods (JJSF)
$1.84 Billion
SHPs: none last year
Matt
Governance news round up:
January 2026: Kill exempt solicitations (PX14A6G): The SEC is restricting smaller shareholders from filing "exempt solicitations" (notices of intent to vote), only allowing those holding over $5 million in shares to use this mechanism.
January 2026: Brian Daly suggests proxy voting may not be a fiduciary duty: Index funds maybe SHOULDN’T vote at all in the speech, plugs AI as the solution.
Back of the envelope analysis:
Half of US companies don’t have an investor with >$5m (small and micro caps), so no option for exempt solicitations?
23% of US companies are totalitarian - controlled or effectively controlled by an insider (or just insiders)
The majority owners are Blackrock, State Street, and Vanguard with ~20% of every company in aggregate - and zero filed exempt solicitations in the last 10 years
Taken together:
25%+ of every company vote might be non votes, the same 20% that would have easily met the threshold for filing an exempt solicitation
Anyone with a bylaw amendment threshold requiring a percentage of outstanding shares will effectively be gifted no more shareholder driven bylaw amendments
No more exempt solicitations
Paired with no more engagement, proxy advisor use counting as “collusive”, and investor mandatory arbitration, and you have effectively ONE INVESTOR LEFT: rich activists
Fine print roundup
Tyson Foods:
Les R Baledge, Independent director (as of Record date December 8, 2025)
Les R. Baledge, 68, is a private investor with broad experience who served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Company from 1999 to 2004 [under John Tyson, family member and chair]. He began assisting the Company with legal matters in 1982 [under Tyson’s daddy]. Mr. Baledge previously served on the boards of two public companies, BMP Sunstone Corp. and Fairfield Communities, Inc. and has been a member of the Board since February 2020. The Board believes that Mr. Baledge’s significant financial and legal expertise, his service on and advice to boards of other public and private companies and his long association with the Company qualify him to serve.
Mr. Baledge was previously determined to be non-independent due to his service as one of the trustees of the Donald J. Tyson Revocable Trust. Mr. Baledge stepped down as trustee of the Donald J. Tyson Revocable Trust effective November 13, 2025, after which the Board determined he qualifies as independent under the New York Stock Exchange corporate governance rules
John R Tyson, 35, director since May 2025 after being fired as CFO for problems with alcohol, who also happens to still be technically an employee of some kind with no title:
Mr. John R. Tyson was appointed to the Board on May 8, 2025 and, following his appointment to the Board, he remains an employee of the Company. Upon his appointment as an employee director, Mr. John R. Tyson receives annual cash and equity compensation…. It also includes amounts for event tickets and security services. Total summary comp: 846k
Emerson Electric
After careful consideration, the Board is once again submitting for approval by shareholders the following proposed amendments to our Restated Articles of Incorporation to eliminate, over a period of three years, the classification of our Board of Directors, without affecting the unexpired terms of Directors. We made a similar proposal in 2025, 2024, 2020 and 2013.
The affirmative vote of 85% of the total voting power of all outstanding shares, whether or not present or represented by proxy at the 2026 Annual Meeting, is required to amend the Company’s Restated Articles of Incorporation to declassify the Company’s Board of Directors
2025: 98.34% in favor, but only 74% of the 566m shares voted (womp womp)
Franklin Resources
Fun with charts: to show a reasonable average tenure, they focus on ONLY independent directors
But when you’re talking DIVERSITY, you have to add the niece of the founder and CEO of the company, or else women on the board look bad…
And just in case anyone asks about AI expertise on the board, you’ve got that skill covered
Just don’t ask WHO has the skill, because you’ll be surprised to learn its the sibling duo who spent their lives in finance at this company…
Apple
2024 gaslight: Under the Board's retirement policy, directors generally may not stand for re-election after attaining age 75. In consideration of the transition of the role of Chief Financial Officer from Luca Maestri to Kevan Parekh on January 1, 2025, significant recent refreshment in board composition, and the value of retaining directors who have developed deep insights into the Company during their tenure, the Board determined that it would be in the best interests of Apple and its shareholders to ask Ron Sugar, the Chair of the Audit Committee, to stand for re-election at the 2025 Annual Meeting, although he previously attained the age of 75
2025 don’t bother gaslighting: In the context of this year’s Annual Meeting nominations, the Board determined that it would be in the best interests of Apple and its shareholders to ask Art Levinson, the Chair of the Board, and Ron Sugar, the Chair of the Audit Committee, to stand for re-election, and to waive for each of them its guideline under which directors generally may not stand for re-election after attaining age 75.
