“If you are worried that your company is lobbying to weaken environmental rules, for example, then it’s really a fabulous opportunity for you to join in with the institutions<br />and other economic forces making it clear to companies that they can’t get away with it.”<br />As was the case last year, the topic of climate change will again appear on shareholder proxies this year.<br />This year, the retirees’ organization wants the company to expand its clawback policy; Verizon’s current policy limits pay recoveries to executives who engaged in “willful misconduct”<br />that causes significant financial or reputational harm to the company.<br />“If something goes wrong,” she said, “you want executives to be held accountable and know what the company is doing about it.”<br />A Caterpillar spokeswoman confirmed that the proposal would be on the proxy this year.<br />“The whole concept of executive compensation is pay for performance,” said Cornish F. Hitchcock, a lawyer in<br />Washington who is advising the group of Verizon shareholders proposing the policy change at the company.<br />Tejal Patel, corporate governance director at Change to Win Investment Group, said her<br />group put forward a shareholder proposal on clawbacks for this year’s annual meeting.
