Diversity Of Viewpoints Would Provide Needed Insights For Board And Company
Washington, D.C. – Boeing shareholders today rejected a shareholder proposal calling on the company to consider viewpoint diversity when it seeks new board candidates. Shareholder activists with the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project (FEP), which submitted the proposal, warn that this move threatens shareholders’ return on investment because it risks allowing Boeing to follow a dangerous trend toward partisan echo chambers in corporate boardrooms.
FEP’s proposal noted that:
boards that incorporate diverse perspectives can think more critically and oversee corporate managers more effectively. By providing a meaningful disclosure about potential Board members, shareholders will be better able to judge how well-suited individual board nominees are for the Company and whether their listed skills, experience and attributes are appropriate in light of the Company’s overall business strategy.…
True diversity comes from diversity of thought. There is ample evidence that the many companies operate in ideological hegemony that eschews conservative people, thoughts, and values. This ideological echo chamber can result in groupthink that is the antithesis of diversity. This can be a major risk factor for shareholders.
Shepard responded after the meeting:
Boeing has seen in just the last few weeks the importance of having ideological diversity on its board of directors. Boeing is a company that has in the past had a significant and positive impact on the American economy, but it is a company that is in a great deal of trouble today. That trouble is of its own making.
This didn’t stop it last month from seeking an enormous bailout from the federal government, just as the government’s – and all of our – resources are being stretched to their limit as we try to cope with an economy that has largely shut down in response to the COVID-19 virus. There are millions of Americans who are suffering financial and health hardship and even disaster for reasons that have nothing to do with them, over which they have no control...
Shepard responded after the meeting:
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