Colgate-Palmolive plans to defend DEI criteria for board selection, letter shows

2026년 2월 25일 · Unknown · financial · 출처 Yahoo Finance

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Colgate-Palmolive told the National Legal and Policy Center that it intends to ask investors to vote ‌against the conservative shareholder group's proposal to remove DEI-related criteria ‌in the company's selection process for its board members, according to a letter ​viewed by Reuters.

The NLPC's proposal comes as several companies including Goldman Sachs, Walmart, Target and Meta dropped or considered altering their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies as U.S. President Donald Trump and conservative groups ‌in the country ramp ⁠up pressure on firms to curtail these programs.

Companies added or beefed up their DEI programs starting in 2020 ⁠amid the Black Lives Matter movement, but they have rolled back their DEI commitments over the past year as pressure mounted from ​the Trump ​administration.

Colgate would join a small list ​of companies such as ‌Costco and Apple in sticking to their DEI policies over the past year. The company said in its response to the NLPC that about two-thirds of its net sales came from markets outside the United States.

"It is important that our directors bring a broad ‌range of skills, experiences, perspectives and backgrounds ​to the Board," the company said ​in its response submitted to ​the NLPC on Monday.

Colgate did not immediately respond ‌to a Reuters request for an ​independent comment on ​the matter.

Colgate in its 2025 proxy statement said that three of its director nominees were "members of underrepresented communities," but the ​NLPC stated that ‌the company did not explain what "underrepresented" meant.

Bloomberg News first reported ​on Colgate's response to the NLPC.

(Reporting by Juveria Tabassum ​in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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