Voting shareholders (think asset managers like BlackRock, Vanguard and many others) who control outcomes rejected two shareholder proposals endorsed by NLPC at Disney‘s annual meeting yesterday.
One resolution addressed concerns about political and religious discrimination in the company’s advertising decisions, and the other called upon the company to cease cooperation with the LGBTQ+ pressure group Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in producing its gender ideology-driven Corporate Equality Index (CEI). Last year NLPC’s own shareholder proposal at Disney was presented by detransitioner Chloe Cole, who criticized the company for its radical promotion of transgender ideology to its family-oriented audience.
This year’s results were not surprising considering Disney’s political viewpoints are shared by the vast majority of investment firms, which exercise their voting power on behalf of their customers, without their input. As we’ve stated a number of times recently, for example, don’t believe everything you read about U.S. corporations rolling back their diversity, equity and inclusion policies. This includes Disney, despite its recent claims.
In fact, the entertainment giant continues to eagerly lock arms with HRC, while in the many cases of DEI optics adjustments of recent months, several corporations have ended cooperation on the CEI. CEO Bob Iger continues to zag while much of Corporate America zigs, at least for appearances’ sake. He clearly prefers the warm waters of California politics to Florida’s.
The progressive politicization of Disney has harmed its financial performance in recent years, which led to board challenges the last two years by investor Nelson Peltz. Iger and his sycophant board of directors fended off the insurgencies. The last few years have seen the business media ponder who will succeed him as CEO, after a few lengthy accounts of the saga of his previous failed succession strategy.
Part of the plan was to bring former Morgan Stanley Chairman/CEO James Gorman (pictured above) as a director (he is now chairman) to lead the search effort to determine Iger’s replacement. That was widely perceived as a promising step towards setting Disney back on a more moderate footing, with less “woke” policies embedded in its operations and employment practices.
Except, it looks like that idea is out the window, based on a Wall Street Journal report from earlier this week. The headline says it all: “Morgan Stanley Went Big on DEI, and No One Is Happy About It.” Excerpts:
After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, the investment bank’s then-CEO James Gorman called out “unresolved racial injustice” in society and vowed Morgan Stanley would be part of the solution. The bank created an Institute for Inclusion with external advisers to guide its efforts and pledged to boost the share of racial minorities in its executive ranks, where it trailed rivals.
Today, the bank faces discrimination accusations and lawsuits, including several in recent months, from both white and Black workers, and criticism from staff who say the efforts either fell short or were unduly heavy-handed.
Even a high-profile initiative aimed at hiring more Black employees came under fire after some discovered they were underpaid compared with their peers. An internal review in early 2023 resulted in the firm increasing the employees’ salaries and paying them tens of thousands of dollars in extra bonuses….
In 2020, Marilyn Booker, the executive hired in 1994 to lead the company’s diversity programs, also sued, alleging the bank hadn’t done enough to promote people of color and that it fired her for pushing it to move faster. Morgan Stanley denied the allegations. In the years before the George Floyd protests, other Black employees also raised concerns about the scarcity of Black executives. Some spoke with Gorman, the longtime CEO, who said he wanted to tackle the issue.
All of those factors contributed to Morgan Stanley’s decision to step up its diversity strategy in 2020, according to people familiar with the decision-making. The bank released its first diversity and inclusion report, signed by Gorman. It hosted video calls for employees to share how they were coping with Floyd’s murder. That June, more than 5,000 attended a virtual discussion led by then-vice chair Tom Nides on the Black experience in America. In its 2021 report, Morgan Stanley pledged to increase its Black and Hispanic executives and vice presidents in the U.S. by 50% without specifying a deadline.
Gorman and Susan Reid, the firm’s global head of talent, tasked the Institute for Inclusion with helping advise on diversity goals and policies. Gorman was enthusiastic and engaged at the quarterly meetings, according to people familiar with the Institute.
It doesn’t bode well for the next phase of leadership for Disney, which after enjoying a reprieve last year with a couple of unwoke box office hits, is hitting the DEI dumpster again with the latest “Captain America” offering and the new live-action “Snow White” (and Don’t Call Them “Dwarves”). The unimaginative, insularly corporate Iger has an incurable case of sequelitis, having destroyed once valuable intellectual properties in the process, including Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars.
Disney’s stock is in a nosedive again, and they think a former Wall Street banker who fell for the BLM, transgender and NetZero grifts is going to find the next leader to turn it around. Nobody tell Gorman about the pool of candidates in the HRC discount bin.
