Mar. 05, 2019
Mr. Brent J. Fields Secretary A Coalition of Growth Companies U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 100 F Street, NE Washington, DC 20549-1090 Re: File Number 4-725; SEC Staff Roundtable on the Proxy Process Dear Mr. Fields, My wife and I are retirees. We have spent our entire lives working not only for our children but taking care of our parents in their golden years. We have done our very best to save what we could for our own golden years. We certainly don’t have a huge portfolio, but we believe we will be able to be comfortable for the foreseeable future if we don’t do anything crazy to jeopardize our savings. With that said, recently we received a document from one of our mutual fund companies and I was completely flabbergasted to learn that an advisory firm would be voting our proxies in accordance to some Environmental, Social Governance policy. Call me naïve but I certainly didn’t sign up for groups with their own agenda voting my proxy! Not only am I not being represented through my vote, but I shouldn’t have to listen to someone I fundamentally disagree with and to add insult to injury have them promote their ideas with our hard-earned retirement funds. I truly hope the SEC comes up with a solution that doesn’t jeopardize our life long savings. There must be transparency in this process before I am being sent a document telling me that my shares are being voted on factors other than pure value creation. I thank you for your time. Respectfully, Mr. & Mrs. Vytautas Alksninis 92 Iron Mine Lane Ashford CT 06278