You're not on mute: Clear and committed plan to tackle macro issues more than a trend on virtual AGM season

ESG and diversity dominate boards' debates

With this year's AGM season poised to begin, investors are considering both the issues affecting the long-term future of 'UK plc' and the practicalities of another year of virtual AGM meetings.

The AGM season, which runs from March until September, provides a crucial window of opportunity for investors to hold boards to account on the way they're running their businesses. Shareholders will use the meetings to ask the difficult questions on issues such as executive pay and audit quality, to diversity and climate change. Following the coronavirus pandemic, these meetings, which once took place in person, have mainly switched online. Besides the risk of kitten filters and the tedious catchphrase of the pandemic "You're on mute", the real challenge is ensuring that an open discu...