As sole trustee of the New York Common Retirement Fund, Thomas P. DiNapoli has taken a prominent role among public pension plan peers in seeking greater corporate responsibility for environmental, social and governmental practices.
The pension fund’s actions range from negotiating to filing shareholder resolutions to, as a last resort, divesting.
Here are some recent examples:
May 2024: The pension fund wrote to 17 companies asking them to describe their efforts to support employees regardless of sexual orientation through non-discrimination policies, health benefits and other benefits.
The companies are Jabil, W.R. Berkley, Universal Health Services, Reliance, Baker Hughes, Liberty Media, Aflac, Agilent Technologies, Albertsons Cos., American Financial Group, Archer Daniels Midland, Caterpillar, Cintas, First Horizon, Marathon Oil, NextEra Energy and Ryder System.
April 2024: The pension fund issued a series of workforce management and fair labor policies for private equity firms and their portfolio companies that account for about $38 billion of the fund's assets. The policies cover fair compensation, workers' rights, job protection, and occupational health and safety standards.
April 2024: DiNapoli outlined the pension fund's stewardship priorities for 2024 covering climate risks, workforce management, corporate board diversity, political spending disclosure and executive compensation, plus other governance issues. He also updated the pension fund's proxy voting guidelines to reflect the pension fund's ESG priorities.
March 2024: The pension fund withdrew a shareholder resolution from SoFi Technologies after the company confirmed it doesn't have a political action committee and does not make direct political contributions to candidates at the state and local levels.
February 2024: The pension fund withdrew a shareholder resolution from DoorDash after the company agreed to publish its "political giving and political engagement framework" policy.
February 2024: The pension fund wrote to five companies asking for disclosure of the gender, racial and ethnic composition of their boards of directors to demonstrate their "commitment to including diverse viewpoints and perspectives in the board room." The companies are U-Haul Holding Co., Jabil, Rollins, Worthington Enterprises and MicroStrategy.
February 2024: The pension fund announced divesting $26.8 million in stock and corporate bonds of eight integrated oil and gas companies, most of which was from Exxon Mobil, "after a review of the companies' readiness to transition to a low-carbon economy."
February 2024: The pension fund withdrew a shareholder resolution from Caesars Entertainment after the company adopted a political contributions policy.
June 2023: DiNapoli announced the pension fund had withdrawn shareholder resolutions from seven companies after they agreed to disclose political spending: Match Group, Penn Entertainment, Paramount Global, Warner Bros. Discovery, Zillow Group, Zoom Video Communications and the Travelers Cos.
May 2023: The pension fund announced withdrawing shareholder resolutions from four companies after they agreed to set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The companies are Carrier Global, Papa John's International, Century Aluminum and Spirit Realty Capital.
February 2023: The pension fund announced it had withdrawn a shareholder resolution from Chipotle Mexican Grill because the company agreed to review its hiring practices.