A few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine an activist hedge fund gaining three board seats at America’s largest oil and gas company. A fledgling fund called Engine No. 1 with just 0.02 percent ownership in ExxonMobil, voted out three board members at the oil giant in 2021, scoring a victory for the climate change movement.
The fund had backing from “big three” institutional investment firms BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street.
Exxon wasn’t the only target of shareholder activism. The world’s largest oil producers, such as Shell, Chevron, and BP, have all faced shareholder revolts from activist investors who urged them to address climate change….