Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Escalating on diversity

Brunel co-filed a resolution at the Charter Communications 2024 AGM, with British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), NEST and UBS, to disclose a diversity policy and set out clear plans for succession to ensure that the company increases board representation of women. The supporting statement noted that the company had only one female director on the board at the time of filing, in contrast to peers where the average was 30% board representation. The average director tenure (10 years) also exceeded the peer average and provided ample opportunity for board refreshment.

The resolution was a natural escalation of our previous votes against the nomination chair due to diversity concerns, supported by the fact that the company did not have a strong history of engaging with shareholders on this topic.

Earlier dialogues with the company weren’t promising, but a breakthrough was made when they announced a new female appointee to the board during the engagement. Further dialogue with Charter Communications reassured the co-filing cohort that the company was serious about their commitment to advance diversity in future appointments. They committed to continue to engage with shareholders on diversity, opening communication channels and access which had previously been very limited.

As a result of these improvements, and their public commitment to gender and other forms of diversity in director recruitment efforts in their proxy statement, we decided to withdraw the resolution.

This development marks an important milestone for the company on its journey on diversity and a sound example of how engagement on the back of co-filing a resolution can result in productive exchanges and amount to a ‘win-win’ for companies and for investors alike.