Is Parker Hannifin the most parochial board ever? Also, Pfizer’s activist “defense” and Champions Oncology’s superstar

PROXY COUNTDOWN SCRIPT

<THEME MUSIC>

This is Proxy Countdown. Welcome to the big show for the week of October 14, 2024  alongside my tag team partner Matt Moscardi. I'm Damion Rallis. On today’s countdown:

The Qualcomm board smells a lot more like Hewlett Packard

An early Christmas at Motorola Solutions

Pfizer is playing defense with a man named Mortimer

A moral victory for Arjuna Capital at The Procter & Gamble annual meeting

And on the Big Vote, Matt waxes poetic about Parker-Hannifin, the company you think you might of heard of at one point

<TRADE WIRE BUMPER>

Trade Wire - BUY/SELL

Top Stories:

The QUALCOMM board has added Hewlett Packard Enterprise CFO Marie Myers. This is a positive development for fellow QUALCOMM board member Ann Livermore, who also comes from Hewlett Packard.

Two AutoZone directors are stepping down: D. Bryan Jordan and Enderson Guimaraes. This is a positive development for our very own Matt Mosicardi who suggested Jordan be voted out at their last annual meeting.

F5 increases from F3 to F5 as two women are joining the board: Julie Gonzalez and Maya McReynolds, both of whom will join the Audit Committee. F3 to F5, get it?

After just four months of board tenure, Ekta Singh-Bushell has decided to step down from the board of Cisco Systems. That’s it. No other information from the company. Maybe because the board is dominated by 89% influence from six male directors? This includes a male CEO, a male Chair, a male Lead Director, a male Audit Committee chair, a male Compensation Committee chair, and yes, you can see where this is going, a male Nomination Committee chair. Even the chair of the Environmental, Social, and Public Policy Committee is a man, the former CEO of the world's largest weapons manufacturer, Wesley Bush from Northrop Grumman. 

The Compensation Committee at Motorola Solutions has announced an early Christmas for all employees named Chief: CEO and Chair Gregory Q. Brown’s equity grants will now include an extra $5 million.

Similarly, “special retention grants” valued at $12 million each will be given to CFO Jason J. Winkler, COO John P. Molloy, and CTO Mahesh Saptharishi. 

And lastly, Mortimer J. Buckley is joining the board of Pfizer.

Mortimer is the former CEO of The Vanguard Group, not to be confused with Mortimer Duke, one of the two controlling founders of "Duke & Duke Commodities Brokers” alongside his brother Ranolph Duke.

According to one report, Randolph and Mortimer are both greedy, ruthless, and dishonest, and both believe that their wealth and social status entitles them to do whatever they want, with no consequences.

<PROXY CAGE MATCH BUMPER>

PROXY CAGE MATCH

Pfizer is playing a bit of defense in its ongoing battle with activist investor Starboard Value by adding Mortimer Buckley to the board. “Tim” is the former CEO of Vanguard, Pfizer's biggest investor with 9% of voting power. Buckley's appointment was announced one day before Pfizer and Starboard Value are scheduled to meet.

It was just last week that Starboard accused Pfizer of threatening litigation against two renegade former executives–Former CEO I