Institutional Investors Are Pressuring Boards To Focus On Whistleblower Protections. Could That Spur Change At Google?
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A year after Alphabet’s board voted against a measure to review its whistleblower protections, one of its shareholders is pushing the measure again in the hope that institutional investors will bolster support for the effort in light of high profile firings at its subsidiary, Google and complaints of illegally spying on employees.
Brought by Trillium Asset Management, which holds shares in Alphabet valued about $150 million, the resolution calls for an independent third party to review Alphabet’s existing whistleblower policy and bolster protections for employees.
Giannandrea himself joined the company in 2018 after spending roughly eight years at Google.
Bengio, who oversaw AI ethics at Google Brain left the company on 28 April following the announcement of his resignation earlier in the month. Although he cited the desire to pursue “other exciting opportunities”, his departure followed a series of controversial dismissals, including those involving two close colleagues, Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell.
Gebru claims to have been fired in December after Bengio’s manager at the time, Megan Kacholia, asked her to retract a paper co-written with Mitchell. In the research paper, they criticised the algorithms Google had deployed in its search engine.
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Non-profit Open Mic is putting pressure on Google to better protect whistleblowers.
It s working with shareholder Trillium Asset Management and hopes to win over other Google shareholders.
Alphabet asked shareholders in a proxy statement on Friday to vote down the proposal.
Last year, Google shareholder Trillium Asset Management called on the company to better protect whistleblowers. The proposal received 5% of shareholder votes at Google s annual meeting last June, ultimately failing to gain much traction.
But a lot has happened inside Google-parent Alphabet in the months since, and Trillium, which owns approximately $140 million worth of Alphabet stock, is giving the proposal another go.