Anti-DEI Groups Target Companies Using Proxy Votes: QuickTake

US companies with diversity, equity and inclusion programs are under growing pressure from conservatives to roll them back. An important battleground is the company annual meeting.

Campaign groups often use shareholder proposals, otherwise known as proxy votes, to try to gain leverage over company boards. Religious groups, abortion-rights activists, environmentalists and corporate governance campaignersfile hundreds of them each year in the US.

Right-wing groups emboldenedby the election of President Donald Trump plan to use proxy votes to pressure more than a dozen big US companies, including Apple Inc., McDonald’s Corp. and Coca-Cola Co., to reconsider ...