NLPC presented a shareholder proposal today at Colgate-Palmolive Company‘s annual meeting of shareholders that asked the company to remove criteria related to diversity, equity and inclusion from consideration of board of directors nominees.
The company’s board opposed our proposal, as explained on page 67 of its proxy statement. NLPC responded to the board’s opposition statement in an exempt solicitation report circulated to the company’s shareholders.
NLPC presented nearly the same proposal this year at American Express, Deere and Company, and Goldman Sachs, and all those companies reached an agreement with us to remove DEI language from board candidate criteria. Colgate-Palmolive is the outlier in clinging to the policy.
Presenting the proposal at the company meeting was Paul Chesser, director of NLPC’s Corporate Integrity Project. An audio recording of his presentation can be found here, and a transcript of his three-minute remarks follows:
Good morning.
I’m Paul Chesser of the National Legal and Policy Center, sponsor of Proposal 4 titled, “Remove DEI from Board Candidate Considerations.”
Our proposal asks the Board to stop using race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity as criteria when selecting candidates for this Board.
We believe directors should be chosen on the basis of competence, experience, and integrity.
This is not a radical position.
In fact, it is now the overwhelming consensus among major American corporations.
This proxy season alone, we presented nearly identical proposals at American Express, Deere & Company, Goldman Sachs, and Johnson & Johnson.
Every one of those companies agreed to remove identity-based language from their board candidate criteria.
In addition to those companies, multitudes of others had already removed that criteria without us even asking them to do so.
Of the companies where we brought this proposal this year, Colgate-Palmolive is the only company that chose to bring the matter to a shareholder vote, rather than make that change.
Shareholders deserve to understand what that decision says about this Board’s priorities.
A U.S. Court of Appeals already struck down Nasdaq’s board diversity rules, finding no established link between a board’s demographic composition and the quality of its governance.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has warned that identity-based selection practices may constitute illegal discrimination — against all persons, regardless of their immutable racial or gender characteristics.
And the U.S. Department of Justice has opened formal investigations into DEI programs at major American companies, with litigation expected to follow.
Against that backdrop, Colgate’s Board asks you to ratify criteria that its peer companies have abandoned, that federal courts have questioned, and that federal law enforcement is actively scrutinizing.
We also ask you to consider the Company’s recent financial performance.
Colgate posted a 25 percent decline in earnings per share for 2025.
Over the past 12 months, shares of Colgate have declined roughly 13 percent — while the S&P 500 gained approximately 14 percent over the same period.
That is a gap of nearly 27 percentage points.
While the Company’s recently reported quarterly results showed some signs of improvement, one quarter does not erase a year of significant underperformance.
Shareholders deserve a board whose selection process is focused entirely on finding the most qualified people to steward this company — not on checking boxes based on things like race, gender or sexual orientation.
We respectfully urge you to vote FOR Proposal 4.
Thank you.
All assertions made by Chesser in his above remarks are footnoted and can be found in NLPC’s exempt solicitation report, here. An executive summary of the report can be viewed here.
Read NLPC’s shareholder proposal for the Colgate-Palmolive Company annual meeting here.
Listen to Paul Chesser’s presentation of the proposal at the meeting here.
