Companies silencing investors at virtual shareholder meets: US activists

To be sure, virtual shareholder meetings have been welcomed by many mom-and-pop investors, who would have otherwise had to travel to a company's headquarters to attend amid the pandemic

Justin Danhof has used annual shareholder meetings to question companies on social issues for the last nine years.

His conservative think tank, the National Center for Public Policy Research, owns just a few shares in each of about 150 companies and takes advantage of its shareholder status to grill executives on issues ranging from gay rights to boardroom diversity.

This year, Danhof often found himself ignored, as companies held their shareholder meetings remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic, and asked investors to submit their questions online. Danhof said his questions on topics such as companies' dealings with China or restrictions on