Apple’s legal team argued in a recent federal filing that the tech giant has no idea what “ideological diversity” means, in hopes that it wouldn’t have to consider diverse candidates for its board of directors, according to the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project, which focuses on shareholder activism and the confluence of big government and big business.
Apple’s filing is in response to a Free Enterprise Project (FEP) shareholder proposal that asks the tech giant to consider interviewing candidates with divergent ideological perspectives for future open board seats. Instead of even considering increasing its leadership’s diversity, Apple petitioned the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), seeking to remove FEP’s proposal from its proxy statement and to deny the company’s investors the right to even consider the resolution, claims National Center General Counsel and FEP Director Justin Danhof.
FEP’s proposal asks Apple to disclose to its investors the background of each of its board nominees. In response, Apple petitioned the SEC asking that it be allowed to remove FEP’s proposal. Apple claims that its investors wouldn’t understand the phrase “ideological diversity.” The company suggests that FEP’s resolution “would confuse shareholders attempting to ascertain [its] scope.”
