Episode Details

PROXY COUNTDOWN SCRIPT

This is Proxy Countdown. Welcome to the big show for the week of January 27, 2025  alongside my tag team partner Matt Moscardi. I'm Damion Rallis. On today’s countdown:

The First Woman of Color to Lead a Major U.S. Lender

The new COO of T-Mobile is getting pampered

A proxy fight is avoided at Pfizer

Anti-DEI shareholder proposals continue to fail miserable

And on the Big Votes, our top voting recommendations

Trade Wire - BUY/SELL

Top Stories:

Srinivasan Gopalan is the new COO at T-Mobile.  He will receive $2M in cash, a giant pile of unspecified equity, and, in a true waste of shareholder funds, company-paid first-class round-trip airfare for Mr. Gopalan and his spouse and children for 24 months.

JPMorgan Chase has raised CEO Jamie Dimon’s compensation for 2024 to $39 million. The 8% pay boost puts Dimon on par with Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon as the best-paid CEO among the largest U.S. banks. Goldman last week disclosed that it gave Solomon a 26% raise, in addition to a one-time $80 million retention bonus.

U.S. Bancorp’s Next CEO to Be First Woman of Color to Lead a Major U.S. Lender. Gunjan Kedia, who was named the bank’s president last May, will take the job in April, succeeding Andy Cecere, who will become executive chairman.

MicroStrategy will now grant new directors a golden hello package consisting of $2M in equity. Nothing spells independence like a $2 million handshake.

At Fiserv, the golden hello package for new CEO Michael Lyons consists of a replacement equity award valued at roughly $28M and a cash payment of $11,665,108.57. It’s so specific it almost hurts my heart.

And finally at Telephone and Data Systems, the controlling Carlson family is playing “now I get to be boss” musical chairs as brother Walter Carson becomes CEO while brother LeRoy Carlson becomes Vice Chair. Walter has