September 9, 2007
Dear Chairman Cox:
I am writing today to ask the Commission to preserve a critical tool for corporate accountability and investor protection: the nonbinding shareholder proposal. Shareholder proposals have helped to promote transparency, improve corporate governance and performance, and raise important issues ranging from greenhouse gas emissions to sweatshops to sustainability reporting. In this way, investors have also brought visibility to important business risks that can have a profound impact on the value of our investments.
I regularly review the resolutions proposed by the board of directors and the shareholders and vote what I think is best for the company, society, and myself. Eliminating this opportunity is taking away one of the points for being a shareholder. Please do not eliminate this opportunity.
The many corporate scandals of recent years have underlined the importance of more communication, more transparency, and more accountability - not less. Nonbinding shareholder resolutions have proven effective in holding companies accountable to their owners. I ask that the Commission safeguard, not undermine, their use.
Please let me know what action you intend to take on this issue.
Yours sincerely,
Thomas Heinz