Vivek Ramaswamy is now targeting Chevron and Home Depot for their questionable shareholder impacts after influencing key changes in corporate America brands like Disney and Exxon.
Woke Inc. author said on Varney Co. that they're optimistic about this new excellence-first movement. It's going to take shareholders and everyone speaking up to drive cultural change. Strive plans to work with key shareholders to influence positive change within Chevron and Home Depot in 2023, targeting energy and racial workplace behaviors. Strive wants to roll back the Scope 3 emissions reduction mandate at Chevron and to remove racial equity audit at Home Depot, according to a press release.
If Strive is unable to achieve positive change with management and board support, Strive will evaluate proxy campaigns and/or additional shareholder resolutions for the Spring 2023 voting season, the firm stated in a statement.
VIVEK RAMASWAMY: Pressure put on by the firm has already proved successful this year, Ramaswamy claimed, noting previous letters from Strive resulted in direct action with an expansion of Exxon's executive board, and pushing Disney to fire CEO Bob Chapek.
Exxon, to whom I sent a letter calling for greater diversity of thought in the boardroom, guess what? Exxon has added two directors, Ramaswamy said. I'm happy to see the CEO has been booted after Strive sent a shareholder letter to Disney a number of months ago. Strive s executive chairman spoke further about Chevron's Scope 3 emission mandate, saying it gained majority support from some of its biggest shareholders like BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard. Ramaswamy believes that the emission reduction targets go further than just Chevron.
Ramaswamy said that the emissions of their supply chain, including even customers, are not limited to their own emissions. I don't think that makes business sense for companies like Chevron. I'm proud to say that we've worked with another shareholder to craft a shareholder resolution that would roll back the toxic effect of the 2021 shareholder resolution they were forced to adopt. The chairman warned of legal risks associated with hiring after a racial equity audit at Home Depot. Strive said in a press release that hiring should be based solely on merit.
The hiring of a great American company needs to be rolled back because that creates legal risks for the company and shareholders, he said.
Ramaswamy has discussed concerns around shareholder influence on FOX Business, and he believes that his firm aims to address fiduciary breach by the big three. They manage 20 trusts, 20 plus trillion dollars. That is more than the GDP of the United States. They're using the funds of their clients, everyday citizens of this country, to force policies onto corporate America that most of their clients don't agree with. Ramaswamy explained that it's a fiduciary problem.
The executive chairman continued, but we're fixing that by representing a different voice in corporate boardrooms. Telling companies to focus only on delivering good products and services to their customers rather than on political agendas is a good idea.