NEW YORK, NY -- Leading institutional shareholder advocates applauded today the results of a shareholder vote asking Dover Corporation (NYSE: DOV) to amend its nondiscrimination policy to explicitly include sexual orientation. Approximately 42.8% of shares voted in favor of the proposal at the company's annual meeting of shareholders on April 22. The proposal was submitted by Walden Asset Management, and co-filed by Calvert Group, Ltd. and Funding Exchange, a foundation network. This is the second largest vote ever in favor of a shareholder proposal on a social issue when management recommended voting against the proposal.

"While corporate governance reforms often receive large shareholder votes of support, the nearly unprecedented Dover vote signifies the growth of support among individual and institutional investors for important, common- sense social and human rights issues as well," stated Tim Smith, Senior Vice President at Walden Asset Management, located in Boston, Massachusetts. "I view this vote as a landmark in my thirty-plus years in shareholder advocacy for greater corporate responsibility."

"A company facing a vote this high by its owners ignores that vote at its peril. We urge Dover management to immediately begin the process of informing their subsidiaries to change their personnel policies to include non- discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation," stated Nikki Daruwala, Senior Analyst and Shareholder Advocacy Coordinator for Calvert Group, Ltd., located in Bethesda, Maryland.

"While historic, this vote is not as satisfying for Walden and its clients as is the quiet successes with the numerous companies that recently amended their policies over the past year to make them more inclusive," stated Kenneth P. Scott, portfolio manager at Walden Asset Management. "Nevertheless, this high level of support sends a strong signal to management that shareholders care deeply about the company's reputation for inclusiveness, and its ability to attract employees from the widest pool of talent."

"Dover is on a shrinking list of major industrial companies refusing to adopt such a policy," stated Walden's Kenneth Scott. More than 60 percent of the Fortune 500(R) companies explicitly bar discrimination based on sexual orientation, according to Human Rights Campaign, including 90 of the Fortune 100. Dover is also one of the largest employers in New York not to have made its policy fully inclusive.

Walden Asset Management (www.waldenassetmgmt.com) is the socially responsive investment division of United States Trust Company of Boston. Founded in 1975, Walden blends a disciplined investment style with expertise in social screening and a commitment to using its leverage as investors to improve corporate social performance. Walden's portfolio managers and social research and advocacy team work to serve all aspects of their clients' unique investment needs -- from portfolio management and trusteeship to customized social research and shareholder advocacy.

Calvert Group, Ltd. (http://www.calvert.com) is one of the largest mutual fund complexes in the Washington D.C. area with approximately $8.8 billion in assets under management. Best known for its family of socially responsible mutual funds, Calvert offers twenty-nine funds that allow individual and institutional investors to pursue a broad range of investment objectives within a single fund family. Calvert launched the Calvert Social Index(TM), a benchmark for measuring the performance of large, U.S.-based socially responsible companies. Calvert also has an extensive lineup of tax-free and taxable fixed income investments.

The investors relied, in part, on the technical assistance of the Equality Project (www.equalityproject.org).

Walden Asset Management

Walden Asset Management

More from Walden Asset Management