Speaking to shareholders at Microsoft Corp.’s annual meeting on Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella outlined Microsoft’s opportunity and responsibility: to help its customers and partners thrive in a world where every company is a technology company and to create technology that benefits everyone on the planet, including the planet itself.
“2020 has been a year like no other. We saw the world come to a near standstill, confronted by compounding challenges: a public health and economic crisis, persistent issues of racial injustice and inequity, and the effects of climate change,” Nadella said. “Amid this disruption, I’m proud of how our ecosystem of customers and partners stepped up to help people and organizations use technology to be resilient and transform.”
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood reported that Microsoft executed well in fiscal year 2020 with a strong start to the current fiscal year. Hood reiterated Microsoft’s commitment to customer success in the remote world, including expanding Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure to meet demand and ongoing commitment to investing against the long-term opportunity ahead.
At the meeting, Microsoft’s shareholders acted on the following proposals:
- Re-elected 12 directors to serve until the next annual meeting of shareholders. All director nominees received a vote of over 98% of votes cast. All directors attended the annual shareholders meeting.
- Approved, on a nonbinding advisory basis, the company’s named executive officer compensation. The advisory measure received more than 94% of votes cast.
- Ratified the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company’s independent auditor for fiscal year 2021, with over 96% of votes cast.
- Rejected a shareholder proposal submitted by NorthStar Asset Management to prepare a report on employee representation on the board of directors; the proposal received less than 6% of votes cast.
Shareholders submitted over 200 questions with 900 people participating online, more than three times the number of participants from the last in-person shareholder meeting held in 2018.
Microsoft’s board of directors consists of John W. Thompson, Microsoft independent board chair; Reid G. Hoffman, partner at Greylock Partners; Hugh F. Johnston, vice chairman and chief financial officer of PepsiCo; Teri L. List-Stoll, former executive vice president and chief financial officer of Gap Inc.; Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft; Sandra E. Peterson, operating partner at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice; Penny S. Pritzker, founder and chairman of PSP Partners; Charles W. Scharf, chief executive officer and president of Wells Fargo & Company; Arne M. Sorenson, president and chief executive officer of Marriott International Inc.; John W. Stanton, chairman of Trilogy Partnerships; Emma N. Walmsley, chief executive officer of GlaxoSmithKline; and Padmasree Warrior, founder, president and chief executive officer, Fable Group Inc.
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
