100 Most Overpaid CEOs Report Shows Fund Managers Reluctant to Vote Against Exorbitant CEO Pay Packages

Media Contact: Cyrus Nemati, (510) 735-8157
Expert Contacts: Rosanna Landis Weaver, (301)-433-2011

Oakland, CA – Today’s release of The 100 Most Overpaid CEOs: Are Fund Managers Asleep at the Wheel? from shareholder advocacy group As You Sow revealed that the largest fund managers displayed a strong reluctance to vote against exorbitant executive compensation packages. With a growing number of Americans concerned about wealth inequality, fund managers Blackrock and Vanguard have both been speaking out against high pay packages, but have not often used the power of their proxy cast votes against them.

The report shows that large non-US investment managers and pension funds are more likely to vote against exorbitant executive pay packages, but institutional shareholder votes can be unpredictable –  this in spite of dubious returns.

In fact, Comcast, ExxonMobil, and Oracle have made The 100 Most Overpaid CEOs list for all four consecutive years, with five additional repeats from last year: Chesapeake Energy, Citrix, Discovery Communications, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Wynn Resorts. While companies pose these extreme packages as “performance” based, we have repeatedly reported the inaccuracy of that correlation.

“We’ve started to see far more awareness of the hazards of outlandish CEO pay packages,” said Rosanna Landis Weaver, Program Manager of the CEO Pay Program at As You Sow. “Unfortunately, awareness has not translated into votes. The rubberstamping trend continues, even with evidence showing persistent underperformance of the highest paid CEOs.”

The fourth edition of The 100 Most Overpaid CEOs: Are Fund Managers Asleep at the Wheel? focuses on the fund managers who do little to stop bloated executive compensation packages.

“It’s time for the biggest fund managers to realize how they’re abandoning their fiduciary duty by continuing to approve absurd pay packages,” said Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow. “The point of diminishing returns was reached tens of millions of dollars ago. High pay has not correlated with company performance, and can only be categorized as mismanaged assets.”

As You Sow also maintains a blog to track CEO pay votes.

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As You Sow is a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies. See our resolutions here.