Together We Can

What Wall Street never told Main Street was how to gain control of a company you don't own.  The answer is surprisingly simple: Take the fight to the Board Room. 

Public companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter are owned by shareholders, but they are controlled by a Board of Directors.  Every major decision a company makes goes though the Board of Directors.  They decide who is hired as CEO, and if you want to change something a company does, you better have a seat on the Board. 

Taking over the Board of a company is not a new idea.  "Activist investors" have been doing this for decades, often when they own as little as 1% of the company's stock, and we're going to do the same. 

Athan is building a platform that will allow us to start a proxy contest.  That's legal speak for saying that together we will choose someone we want to be on the board of directors of a company, and then have them stand as a candidate in the next election and campaign for them. 

But how do you get someone elected to the Board of a company? 

Generally speaking, a company holds a meeting of its shareholders each year where they democratically elect the people who will sit on the board.  Most of the time, no one challenges these elections or proposes new candidates and the existing board members are re-elected without any competition.  

If shareholders are unhappy with how the company is being run, they can contest the election by proposing their own candidates to sit on the board of directors.  This is called proposing a new "slate" of directors.

Once a new slate of directors is proposed, the election is contested and  functions much like a political one.  Both sides ask shareholders to give them their votes, which is called a "proxy."   This is why the process is called a proxy fight or proxy war.

One of the most important things about a proxy war is that it can be settled by the existing board of directors if they think they are going to lose.  These settlements often include an agreement to expand the board to make room for some of the challenger's candidates.  This way, the challenger get seats on the board without ever winning the proxy contest.  

Athan is building a platform for us to wage proxy wars against the current boards of Big Tech companies (and other companies that our members want to challenge).  This platform will allow us to: 

1. Select companies we want to change 

2. Challenge the elections of those companies 

3. Nominate directors who we want to represent us, and 

4. Collect proxies so that we win these elections. 

It sounds like these elections are only for shareholders, does that mean I can't participate in these elections?

No.  Quite the opposite.  Very few individuals like us hold shares directly, but millions of people like us hold them indirectly and don't even know about it.   Just by having a pension, savings or investment account, you likely own shares indirectly in the world's largest companies through your bank.  Athan's platform will show you how to make sure that your bank votes your shares for the candidates you want.

But what if I don't have any pension or savings accounts, does that mean I can't participate? 

No.  Shareholder voting is only one part of the proxy war.   The more important part is putting pressure on the current board to settle the contest, and that's where you come in. 

The people sitting on the board are held responsible for how the company is performing.  If there is a credible threat to the company's performance, it puts pressure on the board to settle the contest.  

If you have a Google, Twitter or Facebook account, you already have the power to effect how these companies perform, and that is why people like you are so important.  If you stop using a service for even a few days, you can deprive that company of critical revenue.  If you threaten to move to a rival site or service, you can put enormous pressure on the current board to settle the election.  Athan will provide a platform where we can coordinate activity so that small actions, taken together, and at the right time, can have an enormous effect on the current board, and the outcome of the election.  This is why you are the key to success. 

People like us have been kept out of corporate elections for good reason, because if we work together, we can take control of some of the biggest companies in the world.  Even if you have nothing but a Facebook, Twitter or Google account, you are already part of this fight.  So take action right now: 

1. Sign up 
2. Share
3. Contribute if you can