Virtual Annual Meetings on the Rise.

• Position: BOARDBOOK: WHAT'S ON THE AGENDA?

The Benesch Corporate Governance Report focuses on trends and best practices at middle-market public companies with market caps ranging from $75 million to $2.5 billion. Two hundred U.S. companies were evaluated for the report.

Despite a certain level of opposition to virtual-only annual meetings, the percentage of public companies holding virtual-only annual meetings has been increasing slightly in the past few years. According to an ISS review, 7.7% of Russell 3000 companies held virtual-only meetings during the 2019 proxy season (vs. 6.8% in the year before) and some larger companies (for example, General Motors and Microsoft) went to virtual-only meetings in 2019. In addition to potentially providing...