Compared with proxy advisors
Proxy advisory firms issue voting recommendations ahead of a shareholder meeting. We work earlier in the calendar, opening dialogue with a board before a vote is even scheduled.
About One New York
Who We Are
One New York is a not-for-profit, practitioner-led membership organization set up by institutional investors in US equities. We give institutional shareholders a structured way to raise concerns with US-listed companies and see them through to a resolution.
Why One New York Exists
A handful of institutional investors kept running into the same situation. Each held a position in a company with a governance concern, and each was pursuing it on its own: separate calls, separate letters, separate meetings with the same board.
A public pension fund and a global asset manager compared notes on a company where both held significant positions. They realized they had been telling the board almost the same thing, separately, for two years.
That conversation led the founders to formalize what had, until then, happened occasionally and informally between institutional shareholders. Their early meetings became the framework for One New York.
Where One New York Sits
Compared with activist investors
Activist investors typically amass a stake specifically to force change, often publicly. We act only through a company's existing shareholders, keeping dialogue private unless escalation becomes necessary.
Where One New York fits between them
We sit between those two approaches, as a coordination layer between casting a vote and running an activist campaign. We combine positions and carry them into the boardroom as one voice.
Where Institutional Weight Already Sits
By the end of the 2000s, institutional investors held roughly 73% of the outstanding equity in the 1,000 largest US corporations. That concentration has only grown since, as pension funds and insurers have absorbed a rising share of retail holdings once spread across millions of individual accounts.
Each institution sets its own engagement calendar and its own threshold for going public with a concern. A pension fund holding several million shares in a company can pursue a concern for years on a track entirely separate from a different institution holding an adjacent stake in the same company, even when both are chasing the same issue.
One New York gives that scale of ownership a single, organized voice when a concern needs to reach a boardroom. It combines positions that would otherwise move on separate timelines into one coordinated case.
Philanthropy & Partnerships
One New York directs its charitable giving to organizations whose work strengthens governance and investor stewardship in public markets. We support initiatives that improve how boards respond to shareholder concerns and how ownership structures reflect investor interests, keeping charitable partnerships independent from day‑to‑day engagements.
Governance
Board
Drawn entirely from member institutions and elected on a set cycle that rotates seats among firms over time.
Executive Team
A separate team, led by an Executive Director, runs day-to-day engagement work and reports outcomes to the board on a regular basis.
Legal Panel
A panel of outside law firms advises One New York on securities law questions, including how to avoid inadvertently forming a concert party among participating investors.
Funding
We sit apart from any trade association or lobbying body. Membership fees fund its work, and every concern raised by a member is assessed against the same fixed criteria, regardless of fee tier or firm size.
Get Involved
If your firm is looking for a structured way to raise concerns with US-listed companies, learn more about Membership and the Roundtable