Glass Lewis Is Adapting to Customer Needs

These pages have often criticized proxy advisors, who provide research to institutional investors on voting decisions. But the market has changed dramatically in recent years as investors and businesses adapt to divergent national approaches to fiduciary duty. As the new CEO of Glass Lewis, I recently announced revisions to our business model to adapt to this reality. Your editorial “The Proxy Flight From ESG” (November 18) suggests that I was “simply reading the politics into the room.” This is not entirely true.

As always, my focus is on our clients and providing leadership in the rapidly evolving global corporate governance market. The advice institutional investors need evolves, often based on their firm’s specific preferences and objectives, and so our role evolves as well. We are committed to guaranteeing our customers a model that respects their different priorities. Glass Lewis is therefore updating its internal recommendation approach and pursuing additional initiatives to build confidence in the market in at least three ways.