By James Paton
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
A group of activists, academics and gadflies kept the pressure on TIAA-CREF, urging its new CEO on Tuesday to dump stocks of companies that fail to cut ties to Sudan, to improve labor practices and to act more responsibly.
Roger Ferguson, in his first shareholders meeting at the helm of TIAA-CREF, took more than an hour of questions and comments. The former Federal Reserve vice chairman told the audience at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver that he would take their concerns into account, but he pointed out that TIAA-CREF's plan is to work quietly with companies to try to effect change.
"We believe engagement is the right strategy," said Ferguson, who joined in April.
"If we divest, we will have no voice," he said later. "We will be outsiders looking in."
TIAA-CREF, the financial services company aimed at the nonprofit community, is based in New York but has more than 2,000 workers in Colorado. The College Retirement Equities Fund, a part of TIAA-CREF, had its annual meeting in Denver this year.
One critic was Neil Wollman, a senior fellow at Bentley College in Massachusetts who has been needling TIAA- CREF since 1984. Wollman and colleagues are upset about labor practices at Nike, Coca-Cola, and Wal-Mart and want TIAA-CREF, which manages $420 billion in assets, to hold those companies and others accountable.
Eric Cohen of Investors Against Genocide wants TIAA-CREF to practice what it preaches and said he is focused on PetroChina, an oil partner of Sudan.
"The question is not whether engagement is worth trying," Cohen asked. "The question is what do you do when engagement doesn't work."
TIAA-CREF said companies doing business in Sudan make up less than 2 percent of its assets. The goal is to persuade companies to sever ties to Sudan or take steps to address "the humanitarian tragedy in Darfur." It said of 22 companies with operations in Sudan, nine have stopped or committed to pulling out.
