Feb 24 (Reuters) – Colgate-Palmolive instructed the Nationwide Authorized and Coverage Heart that it intends to ask buyers to vote in opposition to the conservative shareholder group’s proposal to take away DEI-related standards within the firm’s choice course of for its board members, in accordance with a letter considered by Reuters.
The NLPC’s proposal comes as a number of firms together with Goldman Sachs, Walmart, Goal and Meta dropped or thought-about altering their variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) insurance policies as U.S. President Donald Trump and conservative teams within the nation ramp up stress on companies to curtail these applications.
Firms added or beefed up their DEI applications beginning in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter motion, however they’ve rolled again their DEI commitments over the previous 12 months as stress mounted from the Trump administration.
Colgate would be a part of a small record of firms equivalent to Costco and Apple in sticking to their DEI insurance policies over the previous 12 months. The corporate mentioned in its response to the NLPC that about two-thirds of its internet gross sales got here from markets exterior the USA.
“It will be significant that our administrators convey a broad vary of abilities, experiences, views and backgrounds to the Board,” the corporate mentioned in its response submitted to the NLPC on Monday.
Colgate didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for an unbiased touch upon the matter.
Colgate in its 2025 proxy assertion mentioned that three of its director nominees had been “members of underrepresented communities,” however the NLPC said that the corporate didn’t clarify what “underrepresented” meant.
Bloomberg Information first reported on Colgate’s response to the NLPC.
(Reporting by Juveria Tabassum in Bengaluru; Enhancing by Maju Samuel)
