Mississippi
7 Companies Headquartered in Mississippi
C Spire, Cadence Bank, Cal-Maine Foods, Hancock Whitney Bank, Sanderson Farms Inc., Trustmark National Bank, Vertex Aerospace
Mississippi Average CBR Summary
Avg. Company Rating
Avg. Rating Criteria
| Criteria | Risk Level |
|---|---|
| Cancellations | Lower Risk |
| Discriminatory Philanthropy | Lower Risk |
| Employment Protection | Medium Risk |
Corporate Weaponization
| Criteria | Risk Level |
|---|---|
| Advocacy Bias | Medium Risk |
| Funding | Lower Risk |
| Political Actions | Medium Risk |
Corporate Governance and Public Policy
State Leadership
State Pension Fund Summary
Mississippi has one main public pension system: the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi (PERS).
- The PERS board represents all eligible state and local government employees; the board consists of 10 members: 1 Ex Officio (State Treasurer); 1 appointed by the Governor; 2 elected by retirees; 2 elected by state employees; 1 elected representative of public schools and community colleges; 1 elected representative of institutions of higher learning; 1 elected representative of county employees; 1 elected representative of municipality employees.
- According to its 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, PERS’ general investment consultant is Callan.
- PERS delegates proxy voting authority to its asset managers. According to its 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, “The Board charges its investment managers with the responsibility of voting proxies on the System’s behalf and in its best interest. It is the intent of the Board to have proxies voted in a manner solely to protect the interest of its participants. As a rule, proxies should be voted in such a manner as to avoid activity which would be detrimental to the long-term interests of the System’s holdings…”
According to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, most of Mississippi PERS’ asset managers use ISS for their proxy advisory services.
The “By Asset Manager” and “Asset Manager Voting” tables show the proxy voting records of the state’s asset managers who manage the pensions’ stock market portfolio through index, exchange-traded, or mutual funds. Since these are externally managed funds, the asset managers typically retain and exercise proxy voting privileges. This data is used to calculate the state’s pro-ESG and anti-ESG scores to see how the state leverages its externally managed funds in proxy voting.
The “State Voting” table shows Mississippi’s PERS proxy voting records for directly owned securities through pension fund portfolios. This data was obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request since Mississippi does not publicly disclose this information to its pensioners. The 1792 Exchange encourages Mississippi to publish its proxy voting records instead of keeping its pensioners in the dark about how the state votes on ESG issues with their money.
Both tables are important to show a comprehensive picture of the state’s proxy voting record.