By Rebecca Ungarino
Jamie Dimon, the chief executive and chairman of JPMorgan Chase, again weighed in against annual shareholder meetings while speaking at a conference held by an organization that promotes shareholder rights and best practices in corporate governance.
"Let's call it what it is. It's a frivolous waste of time. They are hijacked by special interest groups," he said on Tuesday morning at an event held by the Council of Institutional Investors in Brooklyn, New York.
Shareholder meetings don't promote "serious conversations" about important company or societal issues, Dimon said. He suggested regulations allowing anyone with a stake of at least $2,000 in a public company to submit proposals for voting at annual meetings are outdated.
Those remarks drew murmurs from the audience. CII is a nonprofit group that represents large shareholders including public pensions, big unions, foundations, and corporate retirement funds.
"I'd love to be private if I could," Dimon said later, during an interview with Bob McCormick, a former managing director at the investment bank PJT Partners who is CII's executive director.
"I don't know of a public company who wouldn't say that. Less litigation, less SEC, less frivolous shareholder meetings," Dimon said, referring to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Dimon touched on another corporate governance issue: the debate over whether the roles of chair and CEO should be held by separate people to promote accountability and offer a check on the power of corporate management.
He said on Tuesday that he has wanted to get rid of the chairman title. "Just get rid of it. Have a lead director and a CEO. Who cares?" he said.
A proposal to split those roles at JPMorgan drew influential proxy advisory firms' support this year. The resolution failed, though a notably large portion of shareholders -- 42.7% -- voted in favor of the idea at the bank's annual meeting this spring.
It isn't unusual for Dimon, 68, who has run the bank for 18 years, to air his complaints and personal opinions publicly. He is known for his colorful and off-the-cuff comments about policy and corporate practices. Earlier this year, he wrote about his frustration with annual shareholder meetings in his annual open letter to shareholders.
But when Dimon speaks, investors and his competitors listen, and JPMorgan tends to set industry trends as the largest U.S. lender.
His remarks may suggest that other publicly traded firms could take his lead in openly criticizing the long-held format of the annual shareholder meeting -- a setup that is meant to promote stockholder rights and transparency between management teams and their investors.
Write to Rebecca Ungarino at rebecca.ungarino@barrons.com
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September 10, 2024 12:30 ET (16:30 GMT)
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