CorpGov hosted a fireside chat from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during the 3rd Annual Private Equity IPO Summit with John Grau, President and Chief Executive Officer of InvestorCom. The in-person interview was joined by Editor-in-Chief John Jannarone and they discussed why shareholder activism is becoming increasingly strategic and is likely to intensify around M&A transactions and corporate AI strategies, while shifting institutional voting practices and greater delegation by index firms are expected to reshape the 2027 proxy season.
“Institutional voting is really becoming much more nuanced. The big index firms are delegating authority to a lot of the underlying investors, and so I think that landscape is going to change rapidly, certainly going into the 2027 proxy season,” said Mr. Grau.
About John Grau
John Glenn Grau is the founder and CEO of InvestorCom. With thirty years of experience in proxy advisory and solicitation campaigns, shareholder identification, corporate governance, and mergers and acquisitions consulting, Mr. Grau provides expertise and guidance to a broad range of clients in the corporate, legal, and investment banking fields.
Before founding InvestorCom, Mr. Grau spent a decade as a founding partner and principal of Beacon Hill Partners, Inc., a leading independent proxy solicitation and stock surveillance boutique. His responsibilities included directing the company’s proxy solicitation and stock surveillance services, product development, supervision of client relationships, and pioneering the firm’s corporate governance and investor relations divisions.
In the 1980s, Mr. Grau served as Director of Institutional Research and Account Executive of The Carter Organization, that era’s preeminent proxy contest advisory, stock surveillance, and mergers and acquisitions advisory firm. While there, he worked with clients such as Drexel Burnham Lambert, T. Boone Pickens, and Carl Icahn.
Mr. Grau holds a B.A. in Economics and Accounting from Fordham University and an MBA in Finance from the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University.
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About InvestorCom
InvestorCom is one of today’s leading independent full-service shareholder engagement firms serving publicly traded companies and investment funds worldwide for over two decades. InvestorCom is founded on the belief that no two companies’ shareholder compositions are alike. Therefore, each company requires the services of a firm that can penetrate the veil of “street name” beneficial ownership and apply this intelligence through services to increase shareholder value.
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