Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks throughout an unveiling occasion in New York on Feb. 26, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs
Amazon shareholders rejected a proposal to undertake a coverage that may require the corporate’s CEO and board chair roles to stay separate.
Vote totals disclosed in a filing Thursday present about 82% of shareholders rejected the proposal. The impartial proposal was submitted alongside seven others at Amazon’s annual meeting on Wednesday. Every of the impartial proposals have been rejected.
Amazon break up the roles of CEO and board chair when founder Jeff Bezos turned the helm over to Andy Jassy in 2021. As a part of the transition, Bezos retained the title of government chairman.
The proposal sought to codify that construction inside Amazon “like nearly all of S&P 500 firms,” advocacy group the Accountability Board wrote in its submission. The group argued that the break up construction permits the board to deal with company governance and oversight, whereas the CEO focuses on the corporate’s enterprise.
“With the positions at the moment separated, now could be an opportune time to take action,” the proxy states.
Shareholder proposals in search of the separation of board chair and CEO roles have been on the rise lately. The variety of such proposals elevated 113% amongst Russell 3000 firms within the first half of 2023, the very best degree prior to now decade, in line with the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
Amazon urged shareholders to vote towards the proposal, saying the present coverage allows the board to find out the fitting management for the corporate “in mild of our particular circumstances at any given time.”
The separation in 2021 got here “after cautious consideration” of Amazon’s management construction and features, the corporate wrote in its suggestion.
“In mild of our success by way of these numerous management constructions, the board believes that shareholders are higher served by the board retaining the flexibility to adapt to our evolving wants and implement the optimum management construction at any given time,” Amazon wrote within the submitting.
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