☕️ TEA Times Newsletter: Education, AGMs, Governance... and Glamour?!
Briefly escape Monday doom and gloom with this ‘corporate cool’ edition of TEA Times that calls to mind companies that are charging their businesses forward in more ways than one.
TEA Times is back! Normal scheduling still being established but keep staying tuned for continued coverage of the 2025 AGM season with lookbacks and comparisons with the 2024 initial trial run. TEA Cup Honours to follow next week.
👇 In this cuppa:
Boom Boom Pow or Governance on the Dance Floor? Looking at Pearson’s and Informa’s NextGen Moves
Quilter Flashes Colour — Especially After Their 2025 AGM
Brigadoon Bromance: Aberdeen SID’s Tribute to Departing Chair Turns into a Nod to Timeless Governance
Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Lloyds Away from Its Commitment to People, Planet and Prosperity
The Butterfly Effect: How Your Signature Can Strengthen Shareholder Democracy
Boards, Ignore Your Shareholders at Your Peril — WB Directors
FCA Consultations & Crack Downs in Focus
Seen on LinkedIn
1. Boom Boom Pow or Governance on the Dance Floor?
Pearson plc and Informa plc —two FTSE giants in education, publishing and events—are stepping up with serious swagger. Not just SaaS, but sass, skibidi, and some unexpected star power.
Pearson Promise
CEO Omar Abbosh is leapfrogging Pearson into the future, bringing in tech-forward thinking honed at Microsoft and Accenture. He’s an author, LinkedIn Top Voice with nearly 36k followers and co-hosts the Pivot to the Future podcast with none other than will.i.am. Since Abbosh joined in January 2024, Pearson has added 200k LinkedIn followers—now topping 1 million.
Lifelong Learning
Engineering ingenuity meets management consultant precision mixed with a pop-culture punch? Boom. I don’t think this is just a pivot. It’s more of a full-on reinvention tour with an ambitious setlist. We keep watch.
Informa Inventiveness
Informa delivered record 2024 results: revenue up 11.4% to £3.55bn, and operating profit up 23% to £995m. Their online Annual Review which runs alongside their Annual Report commands attention for being genuinely inclusive. It brings to life (especially for those with short attention spans 🙋🏽♀️) what the company does, its ‘secret sauce’, and its overall performance. This style of corporate comms resonates with all investor types, not just the City.
Informa AGM Energy
Informa’s 2024 AGM was a full house—packed with dedicated retail investors and, notably, employees. That kind of turnout speaks volumes about internal engagement. From my observations last year, CEO Stephen A. Carter brings a unique blend of high energy, emotional intelligence, and sharp intellect to Informa—equal parts operator and visionary. His results since joining in 2013 support this: Informa has grown into a global events powerhouse, capped by the £1.2bn Ascential acquisition in October 2024.
This year’s AGM will be hybrid, taking place in Nice, strategically timed with the Cannes Lions Festival, now part of Informa. Some have side-eyed the optics of holding the meeting on the Riviera, labeling it a misstep. Personally, I was so impressed with last year’s AGM that I considered attending this year. The AGM coincides with my birthday, and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to combine work / learning more about Informa’s operations with a much-needed holiday. However, probably like many other Informa shareholders, I couldn't justify the costs or logistics this time.
Governance-wise, I don’t see anything in Informa’s Articles of Association that prohibits holding their AGM outside the UK. Is this common practice? No. My research reveals that only 13 other UK PLCs have held their AGMs outside the UK since 2023 (I’ll release a paper on this soon). But off-site employee events and team-building exercises at operational locations are standard. So I’m hoping that Informa is combining this AGM with such an initiative.
Will some shareholders be disappointed not to attend in person? Possibly. The location may raise eyebrows, but die-hard AGM regulars will probably dial in, voicing their frustrations online. Meanwhile, most will likely be content with the company’s strong performance and dividends and just leave it at that.
Importantly: As a proponent of the AGM festival concept (think Berkshire Hathaway’s 40,000-strong annual weekend events), I see a huge opportunity for Informa (and Pearson) to carve out their own unique place in the AGM festival scene. Interested in learning more? DM.
Will NextGen Investors Buy It? Personally, yes. Especially with a carefully curated and targeted campaign, I can see nextgen retail investors drinking up the glow-ups—like a Jacob Elordi cocktail: viral, intense, and hard to ignore.
2. Quilter Flashes Colour — Especially After Their 2025 AGM
What started as a seemingly rigid (and frigid!) exercise in standard process and formalities thawed into sincere, two-way dialogue between company and one of its shareholders (me!). Read the full story here and the pleasant surprises that came my way post-AGM.
Separately, UBS recently upgraded Quilter to Buy, citing clearer strategic focus, better cost discipline, and improving fundamentals. Let’s hope this trend continues, as there is nothing more satisfying than seeing good, purposeful companies thrive.
3. Brigadoon Bromance: Aberdeen SID’s Tribute to Departing Chair Turns into a Nod to Timeless Governance
As I had described in my LinkedIn post, Aberdeen’s AGM had as much drama as an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, with the most memorable moment being Senior Independent Director Jonathan Asquith’s tribute to Sir Douglas Flint, which not only acknowledged Flint’s unique fire, but also reminded of the lasting importance of solid stewardship to the success of the CEO and of course, the entire business.
Aberdeen has released the recording of the entire AGM here and you can watch Mr Asquith deliver his speech here along with our take of his talk.
4. Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Lloyds Away from Its Commitment to People, Planet and Prosperity
At Lloyds’ 2025 AGM, popular Chair Sir Robin Budenberg once again acknowledged the Group’s 28 million customers and 2.2 million retail shareholders—the largest base of any UK-listed company.
His speech wasn’t just about Lloyds’ £4.5bn profit or £1.7bn buyback. It set a standard for purpose-led leadership: from pioneering inclusion targets and grassroots finance to backing underserved communities and simplifying digital tools.
One mission stood out: People First. This is what responsible banking—and true retail engagement should look like. Read my recap of Sir Robin’s Chair’s speech here.
5. The Butterfly Effect: How Your Signature Can Strengthen Shareholder Democracy
Think UK investment trusts are sleepy? Think again!
The UK investment trust industry is going through a not-so-quiet evolution that hopefully propels it again into the minds (and portfolios) of all investors of all walks of life—just as trusts were initially intended to do 150 years ago when the concept of an investment trust was conceived.
Shareholder democracy is KEY in this evolution, especially with 1) the growing importance of retail shareholders within self-directed nominee and private client broking accounts, and 2) the continued presence of activist investor, Saba Capital Management, who with their nearly £4bn investment in the £267bn trust industry represents a staggering 1.5% of all UK investment trust shares today.
It’s crucial therefore that we all flap our wings for positive change by signing The Association of Investment Companies (AIC)’s Parliamentary Petition.
WE ARE ALL RETAIL SHAREHOLDERS, yet, still, not all of us can vote our shares. That must change. Please 👉 SIGN NOW: https://lnkd.in/ezZg6r5Z. So we can all fly towards shareholder equality!🖊️🗳️
From Trusts with Love: The AIC are not just the stewards of positive change, but they’re also the instigators of glamour from time to time—as attested by this fabulous annual summer dinner reel. The investment trust industry essentially spawned James Bond, so the glamour element is only natural!
6. Boards, Ignore Your Shareholders at Your Peril—Fiona Hathorn
Please check out WB Director CEO Fiona Hathorn’s fitting article that not only ties shareholder activism with the investment trust industry, but also to our wider societal and macroeconomic circumstances.
I will be in converation with Fiona on the evening of 1 July courtesy of WB Directors and Pinsent Mason. I will be sharing my insights on activism derived from my 20 years’ experience running over 1,000 shareholder activism, M&A and AGM campaigns. Expect lots of practical, and immediately usable tips and ideas.
And to the Chairs, Boards and Advisers who have approached me for meetings to discuss ‘nextgen’ing’ your investor engagement strategy - Thank you! Your proactivity puts you leaps ahead of your peers. I will be in touch with further follow-ups. Certainly, also feel free to contact me directly by messaging me.
7. FCA Consultations & Crack Downs in Focus
🔹Crypto Clarity: My full response to Discussion Paper 25/1 may be found below. 👇
My take on crypto and this consultation is heavily cemented in overarching personal values, as well as my experience living through the markets as both a ‘governance pro’ and a trainee ‘crypto bro’ for most of 2024.
🔹 Finfluencer Crackdown: Next newsletter, I will be tackling this highly charged and confusing topic.
8. Seen on LinkedIn
May I just remark briefly how toxic and increasingly filled with mistruths LinkedIn is becoming. Myself: I regularly comment sharply on some posts, but knowing that even when making the most effort to be clear and factual, we can still trip up, I make extra effort to make sure my content adheres to highest standards.
This is meant to be a the happy-ish newsletter edition, so I will save my detailed commentary of LinkedIn on my next vlog.
For now, here’s a happyish take of LinkedIn: Ida Liu and the biggest wealth transfer in history
Published by TEA – The Engagement Appeal, this newsletter is for anyone keeping an eye on UK shareholder democracy. I’m Sheryl Cuisia, founder of TEA. Our mission is simple: to connect companies with nextgen investors and help regenerate UK capital markets.
That’s a wrap for this week. TEA Cup Honours to follow.
Stay fab and cool,
Sheryl C
Please note that there was a typo in the email version of the news letter '2013' in reference to 'My research reveals that only 13 other UK PLCs have held their AGMs outside the UK since...' should read 2023. This has now been corrected.
About a year old now, but this video with Inform CEO Stephen A Carter is still worth watching https://youtu.be/tCjvs2GytJ0?si=AMn-DIBhPeuwvHN4