Vivek Ramaswamy s newly-founded firm is targeting Chevron and Home Depot for their questionable shareholder impacts after influencing key changes in corporate America brands like Disney and Exxon.
The author of Woke Inc. said on Tuesday that they are optimistic about this new excellence-first movement. It's going to take shareholders and really everyone speaking up to drive cultural change. In order to influence positive change within Chevron and Home Depot in the year 2023, Strive plans to work with key shareholders to target energy and racial workplace behaviors. Strive is aiming to roll back the Scope 3 emission reduction mandate at Chevron, and a racial equity audit at Home Depot, according to a press release.
In both cases, if Strive is unable to effectuate positive change with management and board support, Strive will evaluate proxy campaigns and additional shareholder resolutions for the Spring 2023 voting season, the firm noted in a statement.
VIVEK RAMASWAMY: Pressure on 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? Ramaswamy said that Exxon has added two directors. I'm happy to see that the CEO was 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 says that the emission reduction targets go further than just Chevron.
Ramaswamy said that they were not only responsible for their own emissions but also the emissions of anyone in their supply chain, including even customers. 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 the legal risks associated with hiring due to a racial equity audit at Home Depot. Strive said that in a press release, hiring should only be based on merit.
He said that bringing identity politics into the hiring of a great American company, which needs to be rolled back, because that creates legal risks for the company and shareholders.
Ramaswamy discussed concerns around shareholder influence on FOX Business, but he stated 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, by the way. They're using the funds of their clients, everyday citizens of this country, to foist policies onto corporate America that most of their clients don't agree with. Ramaswamy explained that it's a fiduciary problem.
In corporate boardrooms, the executive chairman continued, because we're fixing that by representing a different voice. Telling companies to focus on providing outstanding products and services to their customers rather than on political agendas is something that companies should focus on.