Last week several business news sites reported that NLPC had reached agreements with companies like American Express and Deere & Company to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion criteria from consideration for candidates for their boards of directors. NLPC had brought shareholder proposals that addressed the issue at a handful of companies, but withdrew them when officials agreed to eliminate their DEI language from their governing documents.
The lone exception, however, is Colgate-Palmolive, which has stated that it plans to stick with DEI as a consideration when deciding who will serve on its board of directors. Bloomberg reported today:
Colgate-Palmolive Co. told a conservative shareholder group that it intends to defend using race, gender and sexual orientation as criteria for identifying future board members, even as Goldman Sachs Group, American Express Co. and others signal they will drop the practice.
The National Legal and Policy Center, a nonprofit opposed to diversity policies, filed a proposal to bring the matter to a shareholder vote at Colgate’s next annual meeting. The toothpaste maker will ask investors to vote against the proposal, according to a company response that was emailed to the NLPC this week and viewed by Bloomberg News…
“Colgate is doubling down on DEI when top US corporations realize the problems it presented,” said Paul Chesser, director of the Corporate Integrity Project at NLPC. “Corporate employment and business policy flows from leadership, so keeping DEI at the board level signals to everyone at the company that discrimination is still acceptable.”
NLPC has scrutinized Colgate’s virtue-signaling — but toxic — DEI policies going back to 2022, when its charitable activities included funding Al Sharpton‘s race-baiting organization.
The company had signaled as recently as last fall that it was moving away from DEI, having retired (yes, apparently against his will) its Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer. Derek Gordon wrote on LinkedIn at the time:
Its (sic) frustrating to watch organizations abandon their DEI efforts given the purpose of them is to treat people fairly, equally and with respect. It’s clear that respect is far less important in the world today than it was last year.
Watching Colgate’s board figure out which way it wants to go on DEI can give shareholders a serious case of whiplash. This is no way to govern a company.
(Image above created via Grok AI).
