WOKE WEDNESDAY: Howard Schultz's Starbucks letter, proxy roundup, and Credit Suisse's frat boy influence party, plus a word from ESGauge

WOKE WEDNESDAY: Howard Shultz's Starbucks letter, proxy roundup, and Credit Suisse's frat boy influence party, plus a word from ESGauge

Live from the ESG Taffy Wheel, it’s the ESG Industry’s ONLY weekly woke data podcast, featuring BS man Matt Moscardi. In today’s Eagle-Sized Grapefruit called March 22, 2023: CEO updates, an alternative democracy glimpse at American Express, more bank failure  dumpster diving, and a word from our sponsor!

Our show today is being sponsored by ESGauge, your ESG data solutions provider 

DAMION1

1. CEO Updates

1. Howard pulls a Bob?

1. Starbucks fast-tracks CEO handover ahead of annual shareholder meeting, Schultz testimony

2. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz agrees to testify at Senate hearing after subpoena threat

1. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has agreed to testify in a U.S. Senate hearing about the coffee chain’s alleged union busting after pressure from Sen. Bernie Sanders.

2. Schultz is now scheduled to appear at a March 29 hearing.

1. Earlier this month a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that Starbucks committed “egregious and widespread” violations of federal law in its campaign to halt unions. More than 280 Starbucks locations have voted to unionize in the U.S. since 2021, but the company has very publicly clashed with organizers in that time, firing 200 of them. 

2. Schultz leaving the company early has not changed the plans for him to testify in front of senators on March 29, the company confirmed to The Hill.

3. Since Schultz returned to the helm of the company in April last year, Starbucks has taken a more aggressive approach to oppose a union push at its cafes.

3. ‘You are the future of Starbucks’: Howard Schultz’ letter to leaders as he steps down (things that triggered me)

1. Dear Leaders: 

2. As I step down as interim ceo of Starbucks,

1. So humble

3. I am leaving you with this letter, written on the sunset of my last day as ceo for all of you to read on the morning of this new era.

1. Lower case CEO??

2. Trying to be poetic: sunset/morning

4. This is not a letter with advice.

1. It’s nearly 100% advice

5. Everything you need to know resides inside of each of you.

1. Star wars??

6. What I want to write to you about is the love and responsibility for our company that we all share.

1. He just happens to “share” 21,694,538 times more than you do 

7. Today, I am entrusting you all with Starbucks – something that holds a place in my heart second only to that of my beloved family.

1. Why did he have to rank them? Does his family hate him? Is he trying to kiss their ass?

8. Our company is like a river – the stewards of it will change over time, but it’s always growing and changing, carving a new path and moving forward to something better.

1. More bad poetry

9. As I step away, I leave you all as the stewards, in service of all of our partners

1. Unless they want to organize

10. They are the heart and soul of our company

1. Heart and soul = the least paid? Tht metaphor gives me instant coffee sadness

11. Our partners have been teaching me for more than 40 years.

1. More humble bullshit

12. They will help you all continue to earn your green apron every day.

1. Huh? Is that supposed to mean they are the best and we can only hope to rise to their level? That is some beautiful fake humble bullshit

13. And, importantly, lean into the joy. There is so much joy.

1. So much

2. Bernie Sanders says SVB’s CEO Greg Becker was on the regional Fed board overseeing it, plans bill to ‘end this conflict of interest’

1. We need this data

3. TikTok’s CEO (Show Chew) eluded the spotlight. Now, a looming ban means he can’t avoid it

1. The typically low-key Shou Zi Chew faces his biggest test yet as he testifies before Congress over China influence concerns

2. Shou Zi Chew is not a prolific TikToker. The 40-year-old CEO of the Chinese-owned app has just 23 posts and 17,000 followers to his name – paltry by his own platform’s standards.

3. On Thursday Chew will appear before a US congressional committee, answering to lawmakers’ concerns over the Chinese government’s access to US user data, as well as TikTok’s impact on the mental health of its younger user base.

4. He's both TikTok CEO and CFO of its parent company, Bytedance.

2. The IPCC Climate Science Report 

1. World’s leading climate scientists have just released their assessment of the climate emergency and ways to deal with it.

2. “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all (very high confidence).

3. “Rapid and far-reaching transitions across all sectors and systems are necessary”

4. “The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years (high confidence).”

5. The situation is bad, and it’s rapidly getting worse 

1. It’s bad: Human-caused climate change is already widespread, rapid and intensifying

2. It’s worse than expected: Impacts and risks are getting more severe sooner

3. It’s deeply unfair: Those least responsible are hit the hardest

4. Worse is to come: We’re on track to very high risks and irreversible losses

6. But we have an enormous opportunity to change our course

1. 1.5°C is still within reach: With urgent action, the Paris long-term goal can still be met

2. We have the solutions: We can halve global emissions by 2030, on the way to net zero

3. Fossil fuel exit is needed fast: The fossil infrastructure we already have is too much

3. Alternative democracy: American Express 2023 proxy

1. Talk a good game: an 8-page ESG section!

1. Including actual goals (sorry Vivek, you might want want to turn down the volume on this one… this is going to hurt you just like the rise in anti-semitism on Twitter after Elon took over hurts me) set up across three categories: Promote DE&I, Advance Climate Solutions and Build Financial Confidence. Examples include:

1. Maintain 100% pay equity across genders globally and across race and ethnicities in US

2. Double annual spending with underrepresented-owned suppliers in the US from a 2019 baseline to $750M by the end of 2024

3. Provide access to capital and financial education to at least 250,000 underrepresented-owned small- and medium-sized businesses in the US 

4. Etc. (yup, there’s more)

2. an Office of Enterprise Inclusion, Diversity and Business Engagement (OEIDBE)

1. Chief Colleague Experience Officer

2.  Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer

3. Global workforce representation data

1. Examples include the fact that 54% of global workforce are women and 52% of executive committee are women or from diverse race or ethnic backgrounds

4. They flex on their strong ESG ratings

1. AA at MSCI

2. Low-risk at Sustainalytics

3. Score of 100% on Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index

4. Etc.

5. Awards and recognition

1. JUST Capital—JUST 100 List

2. FORTUNE 100 Best Workplaces for Women—ranked #4

3. People Companies that Care—ranked #15

4. etc.

2. Amex shareholders to vote on abortion-related proposal

1. American Express shareholders will be asked to vote on an abortion-related shareholder proposal in May after the company’s effort to ditch the recommendation failed.

2. The proposal, put forward by Change Finance, asked the company’s board to issue a report outlining the risks and costs of complying with law enforcement requests for data regarding the company’s customers and “state laws criminalizing abortion access.” The New York-based company’s board has urged shareholders to vote against the proposal, according to Amex’s Friday proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

3. Amex sought to prevent the proposal from facing a shareholder vote by petitioning the SEC to scrap it, calling it an attempt to micromanage the company. The SEC, however, said earlier this month that investors must have a chance to vote on it. That will occur at Amex’s annual meeting May 2.

3. 2021 meeting:

1. Votes on a shareholder proposal relating to annual report on diversity were as follows: VOTES FOR 59.69%

4. BS data

1. F: only 5/16 31% body count/influence is horrible 13%

1. After 2023 AGM: 29%/9%

2. Charlene Barshefsky is retiring; she was there over 2 decades and had ZERO leadership roles 

3. To its credit: 3 black men!  

4. And finally: Strive

1. .A shareholder proposal entitled “Civil Rights and Non-Discrimination Audit Proposal” was not approved at Apple

1. 1.4% YES

2. “the proponent mischaracterizes Apple’s commitment to inclusion and diversity by suggesting that our policies promoting these goals are discriminatory”

3. National Center for Public Policy Research

1. Current Strive Head of Corporate Governance Justice Danhof was previously executive vice president

2. founding CEO Amy Ridenour was famously anti-environmental BUT pro-tobacco

3. Current CEO David Ridenour (married to Amy: “married fellow College Republican David A. Ridenour”) wrote an article in 2020 calling for Bob Iger to step down because he was too woke

1. Accused him of having a “hissy fit” because he resigned from one of Trump’s business advisory panels.

2. He called it “a terribly bad example for the millions of children who go to Disney theme parks each year”

3. He also said “no one is going to take seriously any of ABC’s reporting on climate change after its CEO took sides in the debate”

4. But WAIT! I’m so confused… I thought Chapek for Iger was an anti-woke WIN???!!!

MATT1

How to fail, an autobiography by Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse, like SVB, actually HAD money - their capital ratios were SUPER not woke:

• 2019: 12.7% CET1 

• 2020: 12.9%

• 2021: 14.4%

• 2022: 14.1%

Credit Suisse also coincidentally sucked at the job of being a bank and/or anything:

• $7bn write down in 2022 for every imaginable reason

• Original 1%er bank run meme stock in October of 2022 as a result of losses

Credit Suisse instead was one of the worst, not just at running a bank, but at humanity:

• Credit Suisse has payed $21 billion - with a B - in fines and settlements for the following woke items:

• Rigging foreign exchange markets

• Rigging bond markets

• Abetting tax evasion

• Abetting FIFA corruption

• Abetting drug traffickers

• Spying on employees (with like, actual spies)

• Breaking their own tax evasion settlement

• Rigging global interest rates

• Corruption

• Fraudy investments in Greensill and Archegos

So Credit Suisse fails despite having money because the perception they suck was SO HARD everyone left them.  Lest you think it was perception, here is the frat party that was Credit Suisse:

• The most influential director since 2017 is Urs Rohner, who average 18% of the influence between 2017 and 2021 when he was booted

• We multiplied the influence of each board member each year against the $21bn Credit Suisse paid out in fines and settlements each year to figure out which director gets the distinction of “director who oversaw the biggest payouts for fucking horrible behavior on the board”

• Rohner: $3.7bn

• Nargolwala: $3.1bn

• Schwan: $2.2bn

• Gottschling: $2.2bn

• Tiner: $1.6bn

• Top five total: $12.1bn

• Rest: $8.9bn

FRAT PARTY IS OVER?  WHO’S GOING TO CLEAN UP THIS MESS?

• Uncle Risk Expert?

• 2017 risk expert influence: 14%

• 2018: 14%

• 2019: 9%

• 2020: 13%

• 2021: 24%

• 2022: 27%

• 2023: 33%

• Ladies?

• 2017 Female Influence: 6%

• 2018: 6%

• 2019: 11%

• 2020: 10%

• 2021: 14%

• 2022: 30%!!

• 2023: 41%!!!!

• WELCOME TO THE GLASS CLIFF LADIES!

• Meanwhile, of the $21bn in settlements, women owned… $2.5bn, right around 10%!  Rohner and Nargolwala by themselves had more than every woman on the board between 2017 and 2023! Don’t let that bullet hit you on the way out!

Meanwhile, because investors DON’T YET HAVE Board Sabermetrics, they decide to register their displeasure by voting against:

• Ana Paula Pessoa - 69% votes FOR, $629m in payout responsibility!

The summary here is: Credit Suisse, a bank frat party at an AirBnb, calls mom after their Uncle on a clean up crew refuses to clean it up asking for help after it's late to get their security deposit back.