At Gilead Sciences' 2026 annual meeting, the company faced a shareholder proposal from David Bahnsen, founder of The Bahnsen Group over the use of ESG and DEI metrics in executive compensation. Listen to David's presentation, urging the company to prioritize executive clarity and business performance over activist incentives.

"Gilead does not need to be grabbing headlines or seeking activist plaudits over inclusion initiatives. Its core business, meeting the needs of humanity by combatting the world’s deadliest diseases, is a noble, commendable, and lifesaving model that every investor can and ought to be proud of. Gilead has done it so very well."

Learn more about The Bahnsen Group at thebahnsengroup.com.

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At Truist's annual meeting, the company faced a shareholder proposal from the Heritage Foundation via its Free Enterprise Initiative over brand politicization. Stefan Padfield presented for Heritage, urging the company to choose political neutrality in key areas, including charitable policies.

"While our nation has come to realize that nice-sounding phrases like “diversity, equity, and inclusion” apparently routinely mean discrimination in practice, Truist has unfortunately been associated with such initiatives. Truist scores 100 on the HRC’s CEI. And while the green energy transition has arguably been exposed as a utopian endeavor that leaves Americans poorer and vulnerable to foreign adversaries, Truist apparently maintains commitments furthering that agenda."

Learn more about Heritage's Free Enterprise Initiative here.

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At HPE’s annual meeting of shareholders, the company faced a shareholder proposal from a BR client over political neutrality in the company’s charitable partnerships. Presenting at that meeting was Bowyer Research's director of corporate engagement Isaac Willour, who laid out (1) the case for risk mitigation around controversial corproate partnerships, (2) what activist ratings indicate about the company's policy stances on critical issues like gender transition surgery, and (3) why peer companies, and the Fortune 500 is broadly moving away from these sorts of partnerships and choosing political neutrality.

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At Starbucks' annual meeting, the company faced a shareholder proposal from the Heritage Foundation via its Free Enterprise Initiative over its reliance on the Southern Poverty Law Center in vetting charities. Stefan Padfield presented for Heritage, urging the company to drop this biased, discredited data source as part of its responsibility to fiduciary duty and political neutrality.

"Given that relying on the SPLC’s Hate List is a business decision that must be fully informed in order to satisfy applicable fiduciary duties, shareholders can seemingly only conclude that Starbucks is aware of how biased the Hate List is, and either simply doesn’t care or actually supports that bias."

Learn more about Heritage's Free Enterprise Initiative here.

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At Disney's annual meeting, the company faced a shareholder proposal from a client of Patron Partners, asking for transparency around the company's charitable giving practices, including reported exclusions of religious/politically conservative organizations such as TPUSA. Listen to her full remarks here.

"I love Disney, and the many happy moments it’s provided me and my family and friends for decades. The way it’s dodging questions on this issue isn’t in keeping with that. Let’s get Disney away from biased corporate policies, and back to creating more of those happy moments. Choosing political neutrality is how to do that."

A huge thank you to Dana for her willingness to engage! Shortly after this annual meeting, Disney came under FCC review over its DEI policies. The company can't say no one was sounding the alarm now.

Learn more about Patron Partners here: https://www.patronpartnersadvisors.com/

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At John Deere's annual meeting of shareholders, the company faced a shareholder proposal from a BR client over its notable absence of faith-based employee resource groups (ERGs/BRGs). Presenting at that meeting was Bowyer Research's director of corporate engagement Isaac Willour, who laid out (1) the case for faith-based BRGs, (2) the company's baffling opposition to the proposal, and (3) why committing to political corporate neutrality means equal treatment for employees of faith.

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In Ep. 127, Jerry talks with Greg Scott, executive vice president at the corporate research organization 1792 Exchange, for an illuminating conversation around the even-more-disgraced Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Join us for a discussion on:

• What you need to know about the DOJ’s indictment of the SPLC.
• The disturbing connection between the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate map and acts of political violence, from Family Research Council to Charlie Kirk and beyond
• How we’re engaging corporate America around curbing SPLC’s radical extremism

Learn more about 1792 Exchange’s work at 1792exchange.com.

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At IBM's annual meeting of shareholders, the company faced a shareholder proposal from the Heritage Foundation via its Free Enterprise Initiative over its perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, one of the primary corporate activist rating systems for LGBTQ+ issues.

Presenting at that meeting was Camille Kiefel, a detransitioner (someone who undergoes gender transition surgery and later regrets it). Kiefel talked to the company about the risks and ramifications of covering gender transition surgery in its healthcare, particularly for children as it appears that IBM does. This was a powerful example of the real human consequences of corporate policies that aid or adopt radical, activist social agendas - and why the corporate move away from such policies and back to sanity cannot come quickly enough.

Learn more about The Heritage Foundation's Free Enterprise Initiative here: https://www.heritage.org/free-enterprise-initiative

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In Ep. #126, Jerry talks with Justin Danhof, Director of Policy at the Department of Labor's EBSA division, to explain recent executive actions around proxy advisory services, what you need to know, and how it affects the financial freedom and future of ordinary Americans.

Join us for a conversation around:

• What is a proxy advisory service – and why should you care?
• Which factors determine whether proxy advisory services are fiduciary entities?
• Why eradicating political bias in finance has generational impact

Learn more at dol.gov/agencies/ebsa.

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In Ep. 125, Isaac Willour talks with Dustin DeVito, director of research at 1792 Exchange, a nonprofit helping to get politics out of corporate America (and one of Bowyer Research's many partner organizations). Join us for a conversation on:

• The latest iteration of the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index
• Why companies are backing away from gender ideology
• The future of getting corporate America out of politics

Check out 1792 Exchange on X (and follow Dustin here), and at 1792exchange.com.

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