Press Releases
New Goldman Sachs Bonus Plan Camouflages Outlandish Bonuses
December 17, 2009
Napa, CA - Harrington Investments, Inc. (HII), a Napa, California-based socially responsible investment advisory firm, recently filed a shareholder resolution at Goldman Sachs requesting the board of directors adopt a policy that top executives be required to retain 75% of the shares acquired through the company's compensation plan for at least 3 years from termination of employment.
John Harrington, President/CEO of HII said, "There is a complete disconnect between the salaries and bonuses paid to top executives and traders at Goldman and the economic reality of millions of working Americans. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's CEO, in 2007 took home $68.5 million in cash and stock and in 2009 has established a $20 billion compensation and benefit pool for employees, including "hot-shot" traders. These are the very people that have pushed U.S. economic security to the brink."
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Yale Conference Produces Landmark Declation on Human Rights and Financial Integrity
John Harrington is a signatory on the New Haven Declaration on Human Rights and Financial Integrity. The Declaration was the outcome of a two-day conference held at Yale University focusing on how illicit financial flows and the shadow banking system increase global poverty .
The conference brought together lawyers, economists, and philosophers not only from the academy, but also from such influential global institutions as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and from such NGOs, civil society organizations, and faith groups as Global Financial Integrity, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Soros Foundation, the National Council of Churches, Oxfam, Christian Aid, and many others.
The declaration will be delivered to G8 and G20 diplomats, to international financial institutions, and other civil society organizations around the world.
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John Harrington, President/CEO of Harrington Investments, will lead workshop on High Social Impact Investing at World Poverty Alleviation Summit
July 30, 2009
Napa, CA - The Opportunity Collaboration today announced that John Harrington, President and CEO of Harrington Investments, Inc has been invited to address delegates at their upcoming poverty alleviation summit in Ixtapa Mexico. Harrington will join 250 other social venture capitalists, entrepreneurial profit and nonprofit leaders, foundation executives and other activists at a strategic summit on World Poverty Day (October 17, 2009) to create new strategies for fighting poverty.
Harrington will present a program at the summit entitled "Transitioning from Corporate Capitalism to Sustainable Living." His presentation will focus on the creation of investment vehicles for individual and institutional investors that can provide competitive returns, while maximizing social, economic and employment impacts in developed and developing countries. Such investments will target programs that help local communities develop sustainable local economies.
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Open Letter to President Obama: It is Time We Outlawed Derivatives Trading
May 19, 2009
President Barack Obama The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama,
It is my understanding that your Treasury Department is considering additional regulations regarding the trading of derivative securities, including credit default swaps (CDS), which are currently unregulated and trade directly between parties and counter parties, primarily between financial institutions. Specifically, the U.S. Treasury Department is considering the oversight of the trading of standardized contracts onto exchange or electronic trading platforms in an effort to increase transparency by making it easier to monitor prices and trades. Customized contracts would still trade directly, but would be subject to new reporting requirements.
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Harrington Clients Invest $2 Million to Support People in Need Socially responsible investment firm partners with nonprofit Calvert Foundation to bring opportunity to underserved communities
May 14, 2009
Napa, CA – In line with its mission to make investing a socially responsible and sustainable economic force, Harrington Investments, Inc. today announced the launch of the California Communities Initiative (CCI), which will enable investors to help rebuild local economies in communities throughout California.
Harrington partnered with nonprofit Calvert Foundation, which offers an investment vehicle called the Community Investment Note, to fund underserved borrowers, mainly minorities and women in low-income communities.
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KBR shareholders will vote on human rights resolution May 14th in Houston, Texas; rape, bribery, and death of employee continue to plague firm
May 12, 2009
Houston - KBR Inc. shareholders – with the firm facing rape and bribery charges worldwide – will vote on a shareholder proposal that addresses the corporation’s horrifying human rights issues.
Harrington Investments Inc., located in Napa CA, introduced the resolution, which will be presented by Joseph Gonzalez of Christus Health. This proposal is to amend the corporate bylaws by creating a board-level committee on human rights.
“KBR’s management is obviously not taking their human rights footprint very seriously. The board of directors is accountable to shareholders, but only if we assert ourselves as the real owners of the company. Understandably, shareholders don’t like being associated with atrocities.” said John Harrington, CEO of Harrington Investments.
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Shareholders to Vote on Resolution Calling on Goldman Sachs to Adhere to U.S. Economic Security
May 5, 2009
Napa, CA - Harrington Investments, Inc. (HII), a Napa, California-based socially responsible investment advisory firm, has been successful in placing a major bylaw amendment on U.S. economic security before the Goldman Sachs shareholders. The vote on the amendment will take place at Goldman Sachs annual meeting on Friday, May 8, 2009 in New York City.
"This resolution will be the first in the country to call upon the owners of a major financial institution that has received taxpayer bailout funds to create a board committee to pledge support for U.S. economic security," said John Harrington, President and CEO of HII, "Goldman Sachs has received a $10 billion bailout, $22 billion in bond guarantees, FDIC insurance, and is eligible for cheap money from the Federal Reserve, and all the while denying any responsibility to safeguard our country's economic future."
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