Activist shareholders, angered over lawsuit, fail to oust Exxon board

By wide margins, investors Wednesday rejected activists’ recommendations and voted to reelect Exxon Chairman Darren Woods and Lead Director Joseph Hooley.

Exxon filed lawsuits against two shareholder activist groups who put forth proposals to get the company to reduce its carbon emissions, which would have ultimately required the company to produce less fossil fuels. Similar proposals had been put forth before, and they had failed.

The activists withdrew the proposals, but Exxon proceeded with the lawsuit anyway, which promoted a campaign to block the reelection of the company’s leadership. Critics of the lawsuit, such as CalPERS, which has $464.6 billion in assets under management, said the legal action would undermine shareholder’s rights to raise proposals on any matter. 

Bloomberg reported that an average of 95% voted for reelecting the 12 Exxon directors, and proposals for reports on gender and race, plastics and social impact were rejected.

Derek Kreifels, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, said in a statement that the foundation is looking forward to seeing Exxon’s lawsuit proceed in court. 

“We're thrilled to see fiduciary duty win the day at the ExxonMobil shareholder meeting this morning," Kreifels said. "Exxon took a principled stand against activist investors who are seeking to destroy their core business.”