Meeting of Minds

At Amazon's annual meeting, the company faced a shareholder proposal from the Heritage Foundation via its Free Enterprise Initiative over its reliance on the Southern Poverty Law Center in vetting charities. Stefan Padfield presented for Heritage, urging the company to drop this biased, discredited data source as part of its responsibility to fiduciary duty and political neutrality.

"The board’s opposition statement is most notable for its glaring failure to address whether Amazon continues to use SPLC data, which is a question expressly raised in our proposal. That omission arguably constitutes a red flag in terms of current oversight.

More broadly, the proposition that shareholders should simply trust Amazon’s status quo is belied by the fact that Amazon has been rated a High Risk by 1792 Exchange on its Corporate Bias Ratings – including specifically for concerns about ongoing ties to the SPLC."

Learn more about Heritage's Free Enterprise Initiative here.

At American Express' annual meeting of shareholders, the company faced a shareholder proposal from Inspire Investing over its perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, one of the primary corporate activist rating systems for LGBTQ+ issues.

Presenting at that meeting, along with Inspire's director of corporate engagement Tim Schwarzenberger, was Soren Aldaco, a detransitioner (someone who undergoes gender transition surgery and later regrets it). Aldaco talked to the company about the risks and ramifications of covering gender transition surgery in its healthcare, particularly for children as it appears that Amex does. This was a powerful example of the real human consequences of corporate policies that aid or adopt radical, activist social agendas - and why the corporate move away from such policies and back to sanity cannot come quickly enough.

Learn more about Inspire at inspireinvesting.com, and watch Soren's video here.

Follow Tim at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timschwarzenbergercfa/.

At Docusign's 2026 annual meeting, the company faced a shareholder proposal from Inspire Investing over the use of non-fiduciary metrics in executive compensation. Listen to Inspire's presentation from director of corporate engagement Tim Schwarzenberger, urging the company to prioritize executive clarity and business performance over diversity incentives.

"The reputational risks of ESG and DEI elements in executive compensation are well-demonstrated — and the rapidly evolving legal & regulatory landscape around such elements is an additional point in favor of fiduciary duty above all else. We are asking Docusign to defend, and fully commit, to its most critical form of inclusion: including every employee, shareholder, and customer as part of its mission of a growing company and a healthier world.

Learn more about Inspire at inspireinvesting.com.

Follow Tim at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timschwarzenbergercfa/.

At S&P Global's annual meeting, the company faced a shareholder proposal from the Heritage Foundation via its Free Enterprise Initiative, asking the company to report on the risks of the company’s work with activist groups like the Human Rights Campaign. Meanwhile, the company became once again embroiled in controversy over its ESG rating policies while this engagement was going on, underscoring politicization concerns.

As Heritage’s Stefan Padfield told the company at its annual meeting:

Another red flag calling into question the Company’s status quo is a recent letter from a coalition of 23 states questioning the lawfulness of the ESG policies of S&P Global Ratings. This letter was led in part by Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and raises the specter of undisclosed and unlawful material conflicts of interest, as well as concerns related to antitrust violations and deceptive trade practices – all connected to the Company’s embrace of politically charged ESG. The foregoing list of red flags suggesting biased decision-making at S&P Global should make it difficult for shareholders to trust the status quo. 

Learn more about Heritage's Free Enterprise Initiative here.

At Cummins' 2026 annual meeting, the company faced a shareholder proposal from David Bahnsen, founder of The Bahnsen Group, over the company's participation in activist rating systems like the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. Listen to David's presentation, urging the company to prioritize core business over activist scorecards.

"Cummins’ rating from the Human Rights Campaign does not indicate political neutrality. It indicates alignment with highly controversial medical interventions, including hormone regimens and gender transition surgery. Further, Cummins’ active participation in activist indices is concerning for shareholders who expect the company to avoid political controversy.

Cummins should not be grabbing headlines for political stances. And it does not need to seek applause from activists. Its core business, meeting the needs of humanity by building the diesel engines and the generators that help power our world, is a noble, commendable, and vital business model that every investor can and ought to be proud of."

Learn more about The Bahnsen Group at thebahnsengroup.com.

In Ep. #128, Jerry talks with Tom Carter, president and co-founder of Ridgeline Research. Join us for a conversation on:

• Why companies like Exxon and Starbucks are moving to business-friendly red states
• Navigating corporate impact as part of a conservative coalition
• How Ridgeline’s American Conservative Values ETF handles corporate engagement

At Gilead Sciences' 2026 annual meeting, the company faced a shareholder proposal from David Bahnsen, founder of The Bahnsen Group over the use of ESG and DEI metrics in executive compensation. Listen to David's presentation, urging the company to prioritize executive clarity and business performance over activist incentives.

"Gilead does not need to be grabbing headlines or seeking activist plaudits over inclusion initiatives. Its core business, meeting the needs of humanity by combatting the world’s deadliest diseases, is a noble, commendable, and lifesaving model that every investor can and ought to be proud of. Gilead has done it so very well."

Learn more about The Bahnsen Group at thebahnsengroup.com.

At Truist's annual meeting, the company faced a shareholder proposal from the Heritage Foundation via its Free Enterprise Initiative over brand politicization. Stefan Padfield presented for Heritage, urging the company to choose political neutrality in key areas, including charitable policies.

"While our nation has come to realize that nice-sounding phrases like “diversity, equity, and inclusion” apparently routinely mean discrimination in practice, Truist has unfortunately been associated with such initiatives. Truist scores 100 on the HRC’s CEI. And while the green energy transition has arguably been exposed as a utopian endeavor that leaves Americans poorer and vulnerable to foreign adversaries, Truist apparently maintains commitments furthering that agenda."

Learn more about Heritage's Free Enterprise Initiative here.

At HPE’s annual meeting of shareholders, the company faced a shareholder proposal from a BR client over political neutrality in the company’s charitable partnerships. Presenting at that meeting was Bowyer Research's director of corporate engagement Isaac Willour, who laid out (1) the case for risk mitigation around controversial corproate partnerships, (2) what activist ratings indicate about the company's policy stances on critical issues like gender transition surgery, and (3) why peer companies, and the Fortune 500 is broadly moving away from these sorts of partnerships and choosing political neutrality.

At Starbucks' annual meeting, the company faced a shareholder proposal from the Heritage Foundation via its Free Enterprise Initiative over its reliance on the Southern Poverty Law Center in vetting charities. Stefan Padfield presented for Heritage, urging the company to drop this biased, discredited data source as part of its responsibility to fiduciary duty and political neutrality.

"Given that relying on the SPLC’s Hate List is a business decision that must be fully informed in order to satisfy applicable fiduciary duties, shareholders can seemingly only conclude that Starbucks is aware of how biased the Hate List is, and either simply doesn’t care or actually supports that bias."

Learn more about Heritage's Free Enterprise Initiative here.

At Disney's annual meeting, the company faced a shareholder proposal from a client of Patron Partners, asking for transparency around the company's charitable giving practices, including reported exclusions of religious/politically conservative organizations such as TPUSA. Listen to her full remarks here.

"I love Disney, and the many happy moments it’s provided me and my family and friends for decades. The way it’s dodging questions on this issue isn’t in keeping with that. Let’s get Disney away from biased corporate policies, and back to creating more of those happy moments. Choosing political neutrality is how to do that."

A huge thank you to Dana for her willingness to engage! Shortly after this annual meeting, Disney came under FCC review over its DEI policies. The company can't say no one was sounding the alarm now.

Learn more about Patron Partners here: https://www.patronpartnersadvisors.com/

At John Deere's annual meeting of shareholders, the company faced a shareholder proposal from a BR client over its notable absence of faith-based employee resource groups (ERGs/BRGs). Presenting at that meeting was Bowyer Research's director of corporate engagement Isaac Willour, who laid out (1) the case for faith-based BRGs, (2) the company's baffling opposition to the proposal, and (3) why committing to political corporate neutrality means equal treatment for employees of faith.

In Ep. 127, Jerry talks with Greg Scott, executive vice president at the corporate research organization 1792 Exchange, for an illuminating conversation around the even-more-disgraced Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Join us for a discussion on:

• What you need to know about the DOJ’s indictment of the SPLC.
• The disturbing connection between the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate map and acts of political violence, from Family Research Council to Charlie Kirk and beyond
• How we’re engaging corporate America around curbing SPLC’s radical extremism

Learn more about 1792 Exchange’s work at 1792exchange.com.

At IBM's annual meeting of shareholders, the company faced a shareholder proposal from the Heritage Foundation via its Free Enterprise Initiative over its perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, one of the primary corporate activist rating systems for LGBTQ+ issues.

Presenting at that meeting was Camille Kiefel, a detransitioner (someone who undergoes gender transition surgery and later regrets it). Kiefel talked to the company about the risks and ramifications of covering gender transition surgery in its healthcare, particularly for children as it appears that IBM does. This was a powerful example of the real human consequences of corporate policies that aid or adopt radical, activist social agendas - and why the corporate move away from such policies and back to sanity cannot come quickly enough.

Learn more about The Heritage Foundation's Free Enterprise Initiative here: https://www.heritage.org/free-enterprise-initiative

In Ep. #126, Jerry talks with Justin Danhof, Director of Policy at the Department of Labor's EBSA division, to explain recent executive actions around proxy advisory services, what you need to know, and how it affects the financial freedom and future of ordinary Americans.

Join us for a conversation around:

• What is a proxy advisory service – and why should you care?
• Which factors determine whether proxy advisory services are fiduciary entities?
• Why eradicating political bias in finance has generational impact

Learn more at dol.gov/agencies/ebsa.

In Ep. 125, Isaac Willour talks with Dustin DeVito, director of research at 1792 Exchange, a nonprofit helping to get politics out of corporate America (and one of Bowyer Research's many partner organizations). Join us for a conversation on:

• The latest iteration of the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index
• Why companies are backing away from gender ideology
• The future of getting corporate America out of politics

Check out 1792 Exchange on X (and follow Dustin here), and at 1792exchange.com.

In December 2025, Bowyer Research president Jerry Bowyer delivered a speech on Genesis 1 at the 25th annual symposium for the Center for Cultural Leadership (CCL).

After that speech was over, CCL senior fellow David Bahnsen remarked, “Can you imagine what would happen for Christian-oriented economics if the 30 minutes Jerry Bowyer gave here today were permeated across the land? The leverage in his messaging about this is absolutely world-transformative.”

That’s a serious endorsement – and so we’re publishing that 30-minute speech from Jerry to you today for the education and, we hope, the encouragement and edification of our listeners.

Learn more about the Center for Cultural Leadership here: https://christianculture.com/

In Ep. 124, Isaac Willour talks with Thomas Dias, Foundation Relations Specialist at the Acton Institute, about how Gen-Z can approach AI constructively, not reflexively.

Join us for a discussion on:

- How young Christians should be viewing technological innovation
- The use case for AI
- Responding to AI skepticism in 2026 and beyond

In Ep. 123, Jerry talks with C. Theodore Hicks II (CFP, CKA, CMT), founder and CEO of Hicks & Associates Wealth Management, about:

• The flaws in modern portfolio theory
• Is ‘diversification’ a free lunch?
• Lessons from Warren Buffett’s ‘secret sauce’ of investing
• Why financial advisors need to be ‘good Bereans’ – and what that means.

Read Ted’s book, “Evidence-Based Investing” here: https://www.amazon.com/Evidence-Based-Investing-Long-Term-Sometimes-Short-Term/dp/B0FH65SD2K

In Episode 122, Jerry is joined by Dr. Allen Mendenhall, Senior Advisor for the Free Enterprise Initiative at the Heritage Foundation. Dr. Mendenhall previously worked as a lawyer and served as the Associate Dean of the Sorrell College of Business. Join us for a fascinating discussion on:

• What Ayn Rand-style libertarianism gets wrong about capitalism
• How ESG activism inherently hinders the knowledge necessary for free enterprise
• How conservative and red-state-centric brands go woke, and what to do about it
• The Heritage Foundation’s goals for its Free Enterprise Initiative (previously the Capital Markets Initiative)

Learn more about The Heritage Foundation’s Free Enterprise Initiative here.