In its early days, Sodali was a thought leader, a change agent and an innovator in corporate services. The firm positioned itself at the midpoint between the corporations that are its clients and the institutional investors that are the corporate owners and investors. After acquiring Morrow & Co and expanding into APAC, the firm continued to develop its practice as a mediator and advisor, breaking new ground in the proxy solicitation business and combining traditional transaction services with comprehensive ESG analytics and consulting.

To satisfy investor demands for sustainability, corporate purpose and stakeholder governance, corporations are going to have to make substantial changes in the way they are organized, how they measure risk and value creation and how they communicate with investors and stakeholders. Morrow Sodali is uniquely positioned to help corporate clients meet all these obligations. In addition, the firm can add value to private companies that face the same demands as public companies. The firm can also help clients lower their cost of capital in the issuance of debt and green bonds. Further, the firm can help companies meet the demands of the new generation of retail shareholders and digital investors, who are holding companies accountable for policies relating to climate change, human rights and the externalities that have an impact on the communities they serve.

Corporations face enormous challenges in transitioning from the past era, in which shareholder primacy narrowly defined corporate accountability, to the future in which companies will be held broadly accountable for their impact on society. ESG and other externalities – including climate change, political activity, human rights and social policies – are now understood to have financial consequences for companies and investors. CEOs and corporate boards are now on the front lines with respect to all these issues.

Morrow Sodali has always recognized that corporations must think globally because asset managers think globally and oversee portfolios of global companies. This is not going to change. Morrow Sodali will continue to help corporate clients manage the expectations of these global investors, while also attending to the specific business issues that are material to their company and communicating their policies to all the stakeholder constituencies they serve.

The firm’s data, platforms and technology underpin all our services. The collective expertise and information compiled through our work with clients around the world is the basis for the added value we can provide. The firm’s unique mix of transaction work, share voting, institutional investor relations and ESG expertise provides a one-stop solution for companies facing the demands of multiple constituencies in this emerging era of ESG, sustainability and stakeholder governance.

• Expand the client base to include private companies and the PE firms that own them
• Provide proxy solicitation and engagement services covering retail shareholders and digital investors whose role and impact on corporations are certain to increase over time.
• Increase our ESG expertise and resources.
• Offer retainer-based services that cover all the annual compliance obligations of our corporate clients.
• Bring our strategic advice and services directly into corporate boardrooms.
• Broaden our debt services to help companies lower their cost of capital in the issuance of Green bonds and the reconfiguration of existing debt.