Those are a couple good examples. Also, John Thompson, the Coach of Georgetown basketball is on the board and has a lot of options. He has a close relationship to the company through his coaching activities, but one could question whether his board seat serves shareholders. This director has a big promotions contract with the company. Also, Phil Knight (the founder, CEO and largest shareholder) has a relative on the board, along with his former track coach.
This is a stock I would buy at the current level. But I brought this one up as an example of what a bad proxy looks like. What this tells me is that the integrity of Phil Knight is critical to my investment here. That's kind of nice to know, because it directs your research in the right direction, and you won't find that in the annual report.
Warren Buffett's highest non-financial criteria, possibly his highest criteria, is the integrity of management. But unlike a small investor, he can actually get to know management personnally before he invests. I would bet he also reads proxies diligently. Since CEOs are not going to return an individual investor's call, a proxy is about as close as you can get to this tenet of Buffetology.
JJC
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