JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who won his executive pay vote by the narrowest margin ever last month amid opposition from ISS and Glass Lewis, called investors that automatically follow the suggestions of proxy advisory firms ‘lazy’ and ‘irresponsible’.
‘God knows how any of you can place your vote based on ISS or Glass Lewis,’ Dimon said to an investor conference in New York, according to media reports. ‘If you do that you are just irresponsible, I am sorry. And you probably aren’t a very good investor, either. I know some of you here do it because you are lazy.’
At the bank’s annual shareholder meeting in mid-May in Detroit, 61.4 percent voted in favor of the 2014 executive pay package, including a $20 mn package for Dimon, which included $7.4 mn in cash – his first cash bonus in three years. The vote was the narrowest ever executive pay victory for the bank, down from 77.9 percent approval last year and 92.2 percent at the annual shareholder meeting in 2013.
The board’s compensation committee is now considering changes to executive pay policy.
Both Glass Lewis and ISS recommended shareholders vote against the 2014 JPMorgan pay package because, they said, the bank does not clearly link compensation to performance goals and it did not adequately justify Dimon’s cash bonus.
Dimon has also had high-profile conflicts with proxy advisory firms on his dual role as chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan, which ISS, Glass Lewis and others oppose. In a discussion about corporate governance at the Sanford Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference in New York, Dimon addressed the dual role debate, pointing to past cases of collusion between the CEO and chairman at other companies, such as Enron.
