Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)

Our Board has less accountability if it can adopt a future poison pill without a shareholder vote. I believe this proposal is consistent with other proposals to improve the lack of accountability of our Board.

For instance, a proposal that seeks access to H-P's proxy in order to allow shareholders groups more say in who gets on the H-P board has been submitted for the 2007 annual meeting. The proposal asks H-P to change its bylaws to allow groups that hold 3% or more of the company's stock to be able to post nominations for H-P board members. The sponsors are retirement funds from the states of New York, Connecticut and North Carolina plus the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Pension Funds (AFSCME). The four funds own a combined 30 million H-P shares worth about $676 million.

At least one governance expert goes so far as to recommend a complete sweep of the existing board. "I think you clean house," said Charles Elson, the chairman of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. "You do it in a logical, determined, measured way, but I think over the next couple of years you need to reconstitute that board." Elson suggested to Business Week to start with those who had the closest connections to past management.