THURSDAY QUIZ: Whirlpool proxy quiz, Cucker Tarlson isn't even satire anymore, and Who the Eff is That??
Live from Blackrock’s Stakeholder Capitalism Vending Machine, featuring Pepsi, Doritos, and a plant-based oil rig drill pipe, it’s a Thursday Game Show edition of Business Pants
Joined by the Lord of BS and special guest contestant Money Whisperer Scanlon. In today’s reusable bag of materiality called March 9, 2023: Two glorious games: Proxy Quiz and Who the Eff is That?
DAMION1
Random New Proxy Quiz Game: Whirlpool:
Fresh off the presses yesterday at 4:13pm. Whirlpool Corp. (WHR) is a leading home appliance company that sells products under a wide variety of brands such as Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air, and Consul.
We would certainly expect a strong female presence at a company like Whirlpool.
Inc. Magazine reported that “women, on the daily, spend more time than men making economic decisions for their families -- from consumer goods to services. Women hold crucial purchasing power. In fact, Women drive 70-80% of all consumer purchasing, through a combination of their buying power and influence.”
While a white paper from Kleber & Associates states that “women today still account for 85% of all consumer purchases” while “75% of women identify themselves as the primary shoppers for their households”
Nielsen consumer research estimates that women’s total purchasing power currently ranges from $5 trillion to $15 trillion annually.
So with that as a background, what do the contestants think that average female influence on the board of Whirlpool is, according to Board Sabermetrics data?? And this is not a trick question, I’m just picking new proxies from famous companies. Really this question is: what level of female influence do you think should be on a board like Whirlpool?
Body count hint?
With that said, out of 6 possible board leadership roles (4 committee chairs, board chair, lead director) and out of five named executive officer roles (including CEO and CFO), how many of these 11 leadership roles at Whirlpool are held by women?
Bonus question: describe the person pictured in the proxy statement’s first photo.
Double bonus question: name one of the company’s 3 Social highlights as part of the company’s ESG Highlights listed at the very top of its proxy statement
Triple bonus question: according to the company’s CEO pay ratio disclosure, how long does CEO Marc Bitzer have to work to earn the median total annual compensation of one of his beloved employees?
Cucker Tarlson
I’m going to read something to you, and stop me when we get to the part about running a railroad:
“We will implement and expand unconscious bias education. We will create and share strategic inclusion and diversity plans with our board of directors. We can cultivate meaningful change for our society.”
Notice how you couldn’t stop me? What I quoted was part of a pledge made by a CEO not to make more money, but instead to spend shareholder money - your money in your pension fund or your retirement account - on something called DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion. But that’s not just any CEO.
This pledge was signed by the CEO of Norfolk Southern, Alan Shaw.
I’m Cucker Tarlson, and this is Are You Terrified Yet
Here are some statistics Norfolk Southern wants you to be proud of:
52% of trainee/intern hires are a racial minority and/or female
60% of executive vice presidents are female
56% of new manager hires are a racial minority
Do me a favor, and look closely at those numbers.
What you don’t see in the numbers I cherry picked is anything about the safety of your children or the qualifications those people have to operate a railroad.
You also won’t see anything about merit.
DEI is now driving our trains carrying toxic chemicals through our communities.
So if DEI is driving the trains, who’s driving DEI?
At Norfolk, the executive in charge of DEI is Jason Pettaway. Jason was working in the IT department of Norfolk Southern for more than 20 years, with his skills listed as IT infrastructure, data warehousing, and cloud computing. Not listed are “train safety” and “child protection.” Jason is, however, black.
Jason reports to Norfolk’s board, specifically the Human Capital committee which is charge of DEI. That committee is lead by John Thomson. John had a long career working at Best Buy, Liz Claiborne, and Goody’s Family Clothing running their website sales. Not listed in John’s qualifications are the words “railroad” or “spill cleanup”. John, also, is black.
John himself reports to regulators in the Biden administration, specifically the Department of Transportation that oversees Norfolk and its safety. The Department of Transportation is lead by Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Mayor Pete graduated with a degree in history and literature. Not listed in Pete’s qualifications are the words “transportation infrastructure” or “laying railroad tracks”. Pete, though, is a gay man.
So let’s recap the steps the left took to turn Norfolk Southern from the heartbeat of our nation’s infrastructure to a chemical spilling menace.
Have liberal investor elites like Blackrock write a letter saying DEI is the only thing that matters.
Force the CEO of the railroad to sign a pledge on DEI.
Hire the closest black man to run the DEI effort, diverting safety resources probably to implement a new strategy of corporate affirmative action.
Make sure the DEI strategy is lead at the board level by the next closest black man.
Avoid scrutiny by the gay man in charge of the nation’s infrastructure.
If you’re white in America, this is the uphill battle you face. Blackrock, Norfolk Southern, and the Biden administration have put the wokes before the folks.
One has to wonder: how much was Norfolk Southern’s DEI policies directing resources away from important things like greasing wheel bearings?
And are you terrified yet?
WHO THE EFF IS THAT?
Lynn Good
Boeing Comp Chair, CEO of Duke Energy
7 years of tenure, 10% influence, and in the news:
Boeing CEO Calhoun just missed out on a $7 million bonus. But he still got a raise
25,000 shares as a “retention bonus”
Raise from 21.1m to 22.5m despite missing key targets (like a 6.6bn loss last year, up from 5bn the prior year)
Even raised the mandatory CEO retirement age, just for Calhoun!
100% - 100%!!! - of the Boeing board is connected to one another within three degrees
Lynn is connected to 8 other board members out of 9
Sue Gove
CEO and OF COURSE NOT the chair of Bath & Body Works
37% of the influence
Bath & Body Works Named Diversity Top 50 Company - CSRwire.com
OUR DATA CORROBORATES:
A whopping 81% of the influence is female - even if you removed Gove and redistributed the influence, the board would be female powered
Usually I have to highlight the entire column in Excel and deselect the women - there are always fewer of them. This time I had to deselect the men!
Michael O. Leavitt
Chair of the Safety committee at Royal Caribbean
Ex Bush administration EPA director, Health and Human Services
New to the board in the last year
He has.. 0% influence! So no one has been listening to him about this:
