Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted late Friday that the company will have to postpone its annual shareholder meeting which was scheduled for July 7 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“We will have to postpone annual shareholder meeting, as still no large gatherings allowed by July 7th. Not sure of new date, but am guessing maybe a month or so later,” Musk said in his tweet.
Tesla is facing pressure from proxy advisors Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) who are both urging shareholders to vote to oppose the reelection of Robyn Denholm as board chair at the electric vehicle maker.
The proxy advisors have expressed concerns over Tesla’s high compensation for directors, and a steep rise in the amount of shares pledged by Tesla directors and executives, including Elon Musk, since Denholm was appointed chair in November 2018.
Denholm replaced Elon Musk as chairman of the board after he was forced to give up the role as part of a settlement agreement with the SEC over his now infamous tweets saying he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share.
Meanwhile, Nia Impact Capital has asked Tesla shareholders to vote against the board’s recommendation and require the company to report details about the effects of mandatory arbitration on its employees. According to research by Nia Impact Capital, mandatory arbitration can engender and serve to conceal harassment in the workplace. On June 19, Nia Impact Capital received a preliminary vote of 70% for a related proposal at Fortinet, whose shareholders voted to require the company to release quantitative diversity data.