PepsiCo To Develop HIV/AIDS Policy, CEO Announces at Annual Shareholders’ Meeting
PepsiCo Chair and CEO Steven Reinemund on Wednesday at the company's annual shareholders' meeting announced that the company will develop a policy on HIV/AIDS by the end of the year, the New York Journal News reports. Reinemund announced the plan before revealing that a shareholder resolution on HIV/AIDS proposed by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility had been rejected (Klingbel, New York Journal News, 5/6). Only about 7.7% of shareholders voted in favor of the proposal, which called for PepsiCo to produce within six months a report on the economic and employee impact of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. The approval rate was enough to allow the measure to be reintroduced next year. "The economic fortunes of PepsiCo and of the people affected by the pandemic are tightly bound together," Mennonite Mutual Aid Stewardship Investing Services Manager Mark Regier said, adding, "We believe HIV/AIDS is a critical social and economic issue facing the company, so we felt compelled to address it along with other shareholders." MMA and 274 other faith-based institutional investors are members of ICCR (ICCR release, 5/5). Despite the failure of the resolution, the company said it will examine employee programs and policies and identify ways of fighting the disease in regions where the company has operations, Reinemund said, according to the Journal News. "HIV/AIDS is a priority for PepsiCo, and we are taking action," Reinemund said, adding, "We will have a complete policy on HIV and AIDS by year-end, which we will be sharing publicly" (New York Journal News, 5/6).
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