News release | Melissa Jones-Ferguson

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (August 25, 2025) – The California State Teachers’ Retirement System—the world’s largest educator-only pension fund—protected the pensions of California’s public educators by carefully weighing shareholder proposals and votes on companies’ boards of directors this proxy season.

Once a year, investors have the opportunity to exercise their proxy voting rights at companies’ annual general meetings, or AGMs. Every year, CalSTRS executes more than 100,000 votes at approximately 10,000 company AGMs.

As part of those meetings, voters often consider shareholder proposals, which are formal recommendations from shareholders to a company’s board of directors requesting a new course of action. For example, a shareholder proposal may ask a company to launch an annual report detailing its annual greenhouse gas emissions.

“We manage our proxy votes like any other asset, as a tool to benefit our more than 1 million members and beneficiaries,” said Aeisha Mastagni, a senior portfolio manager on CalSTRS’ Sustainable Investment and Stewardship Strategies team. “Our proxy votes are an important part of our engagement strategy to assess risk and influence portfolio companies.”

CalSTRS voted on 1,212 shareholder proposals in the 2025 proxy season, voting for 484 proposals and against 728 proposals. Topics included reporting on greenhouse gas disclosures, human capital management (workforce management and employee wellness) and board governance.

Staff review company reports and independent research to determine how to vote in the best interests of CalSTRS’ members.

“We support shareholder proposals that help us make informed decisions and manage the portfolio to consider both risk and return across decades,” Mastagni said. “The shareholder proposals we supported during the 2025 proxy season will help investors like CalSTRS better manage risk.”

A vote against a proposal does not signify that CalSTRS finds the topic insignificant. Each shareholder proposal is carefully considered, depending on its details and the processes and needs of the company in question.

“As part of CalSTRS’ mission, we influence the companies in which we invest by actively casting proxy votes at annual meetings, supporting corporate board members and resolutions that align with the long-term financial interest of our members,” Mastagni said. “There are times we vote against proposals that we believe are not in the best interests of a company.”

CalSTRS votes against shareholder proposals for many reasons, including structural issues with how the proposal is written. The proposal may also be overly prescriptive, while CalSTRS prefers that companies determine their own best strategies. Or the company may already provide the information the proposal asks for, which would be a poor use of company resources.

CalSTRS will continue working to influence the world’s largest companies to create business practices that minimize risk and create value, helping to ensure California’s public educators continue to have a secure retirement.

See CalSTRS’ Corporate Governance Principles and proxy voting records for more information.

Media contact

Melissa Jones-Ferguson
Phone: 916-414-1440
M-F, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. PDT
Newsroom@CalSTRS.com

About CalSTRS

CalSTRS provides a secure retirement to more than 1 million members and beneficiaries whose CalSTRS-covered service is not eligible for Social Security participation. On average, members who retired in the 2023–24 fiscal year had 25.2 years of service and a monthly benefit of $5,659. Established in 1913, CalSTRS is the largest educator-only pension fund in the world with $369.6 billion in assets under management as of July 31, 2025​​.