Goldman Sachs Group shareholders voted at Friday’s annual meeting in support of management on all proxy proposals, including one sponsored by the Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, seeking a determination from the Goldman board’s compensation committee on whether senior executive compensation packages are excessive and should be modified.
Shareholders voted 95.9% against the $435 million foundation’s proposal, which also sought to determine how major layoffs and the level of pay of the lowest-paid employees at the company impact senior executive pay, said Stephen Cohen, Goldman Sachs spokesman, who provided preliminary proxy voting results.
Shareholders voted 73% in favor of Goldman Sachs’ executive compensation and supported by an 85% vote the company’s recommendation to conduct a non-binding say-on-pay vote every year.
Directors were elected with at least a 90% vote in support.
Among other shareholder proposals, a call for cumulative voting in director elections was defeated by a 74.4% vote; relaxing the threshold for support to call a special shareholder meeting lost by a 58.1% vote; and requiring senior executives to retain three-fourths of the shares acquired through the company’s compensation plans for three years after leaving the firm lost with 79.4% against. Also, 97.7% voted against reporting on climate change risk; and 87.9% opposed disclosure of political contributions.
