September 11, 2007
Dear Chairman Cox: I 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. Many corporate scandals of recent years have underlined the importance of more communication, more transparency, and more accountability. Yours sincerely, Benjamin Melançon