companies, ranking them according to their annual revenues, and then focused in on the 250 largest corporations. Our researchers then collected all of the proxy statements and annual reports from these corporations as well as information from the Securities and Exchange Commission. After identifying thousands of directors serving on the boards of these corporations, we contacted the investor relations department of each company to confirm the number and identity of black directors on their boards. When investor relations departments were unresponsive or refused to confirm the ethnic representation on their boards, our research team contacted individual board members directly to confirm their participation and that of other black directors who served with them. When companies were unresponsive and #individual directors could not be reached, we relied on independent #confirmation of information provided in those companies’ most recent proxy statements.
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