Apple has decided to let shareholders vote on a proposal that would force the company to add “people of color” to their high executive ranks and board of directors. The company is recommending its shareholders vote against the proposal, saying the company already has in place policies that address the proposal’s concerns, and in a much broader scope.
Apple, in its 2016 proxy statement issued to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, decided to let shareholders vote on a contentious proposal that would force the company to add “people of color” to high-ranking management and its board of directors.
The proposal was submitted by investor Antonio Avian Maldonado II last year, and seeks to force Apple to add non-white persons to the company’s upper management and board of directors.
The proposal reads:
Shareholders request that the Board of Directors adopt an accelerated recruitment policy requiring Apple Inc. (the “Company”) to increase the diversity of senior management and its board of directors, two bodies that presently fails to adequately represent diversity (particularly Hispanic, African-American, Native-American and other people of colour).
Apple says the proposal concentrates only on senior managements, and therefore is inferior to the company’s policies that are already in place for minority hiring, which aims to hire minorities in all levels of the company.
Diversity has long been a core value at Apple, and their strategy includes outreach programs, such as the one with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which funds scholarships for students at historically black colleges and universities.
“Our Board of Directors shares this commitment. Pursuant to its charter, the Nominating Committee of our Board of Directors actively seeks out highly qualified women and individuals from minority groups to include in the pool from which Board nominees are chosen, and this has been reflected in our most recent appointments to the Board,” Apple said.
Apple told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it believes it isn’t required to include the proposal in its proxy materials, as it’s an attempt to micromanage recruitment. The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance said in a Dec. 11 letter that it didn’t agree with the company’s position, saying while it’s up to Apple to decide whether to bring the matter to a vote at the 2016 meeting, if it doesn’t that could bring an enforcement action by the SEC.
