Investment Management Partner George Raine Quoted in Fund Directions on Adverse Voting Policies Based On Board Diversity

A Dec. 7 article in Fund Directions titled “Proxy advisers' new guidelines on board diversity hold lessons for fund directors” reports that mutual fund directors need to take note of recent updates to proxy voting guidelines by major proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services, which include the first adverse voting policies based on board diversity. Insights from investment management partner George Raine are included in the piece. Fund boards' reactions to the Glass Lewis and ISS policies will vary depending on their investment advisers' approach to proxy voting, according to George Raine, partner at Ropes & Gray. “Different mutual fund boards will have different approaches to their review and the input they want to give as to specific views that the investment advisers take,” Mr. Raine states in the article, continuing that it “depends greatly by the fund complex and how involved mutual fund directors are in the proxy voting process.”