With companies and investors increasingly talking about governance, IROs should add these names to their contact list
Anne Chapman and Chad Norton, vice presidents of investment operations, Capital Group
Anne Chapman and Chad Norton globally co-manage a 21-person team that uses governance to support investment decisions throughout the organization. More often than not, says Chapman, engagement is spurred by outreach from a public company. ‘We don’t pick an issue and reach out and do a campaign,’ she explains. ‘It’s a little more reactive than proactive.’
Norton says phone calls are the most common form of outreach, simply ‘because of the sheer volume of meetings requested.’ One trend he’s observed is ‘an increase in the number of independent directors participating in engagements, whether they’re there on the phone or in person.’
Factfile
– Hot issues, says Chapman, are executive compensation and proxy access, the latter of which she describes as ‘a trending issue in the last year.’
– Norton discourages check-the-box forms of engagement: ‘If we tell [companies] we don’t need to engage, it’s not because there’s a problem: it’s actually the opposite.’
– Having worked at Capital Group for 26 years and done governance for 23 of those, Chapman enjoys ‘reading things without footnotes’ outside of work, as well as spending time with her four-year-old granddaughter.
– Norton, who has spent 32 years at Capital Group, is father to two young daughters and likes reading auto manuals and tinkering with cars when he’s not at the office.
