Microsoft’s commitment to shareholder engagement

In 2009, Microsoft began posting video interviews with members of its board of directors to provide deeper insights into their backgrounds and perspectives on board service. This month, we posted our most recent interview with Mason Morfit, a Microsoft board member since 2014 and president of ValueAct Capital.

During the conversation, Mason speaks about his background at ValueAct Capital, his views on Microsoft’s leadership and where he thinks the company is headed next. He also offers a behind-the-scenes view of how the board operates, and talks about the importance of shareholder engagement.

Our board video series and this Microsoft on the Issues blog are just two components of our investor outreach efforts. With over 3.4 million shareholders, these are two examples of ‘one-to-many’ communications that provide the scale to reach all of our shareholders. Our Investor Relations website and its Governance & Citizenship tab take the same approach.

We use a variety of other methods to engage with our shareholders. Over that past year, independent members of our board spoke with investors collectively holding over 30 percent of outstanding shares. Senior members of our management team also speak with our shareholders and provide the feedback received directly to our board. Our CEO, Satya Nadella, remains committed to investing time with our shareholders to increase transparency and better understand their perspectives, including by participating in our quarterly earnings calls.

A look at our annual outreach efforts and corporate governance cycle is below.

shareholders, board of directors

We deeply value the continued interest of and feedback from shareholders, and are committed to maintaining our active dialogue with shareholders to ensure a diversity of perspectives are thoughtfully considered. Besides meeting directly with our institutional investors, we provide our [email protected] e-mail box for communication to our board, and encourage shareholders to contact us to address any aspect of our corporate governance framework or the role of the board.

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