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Independent research and rating firm GovernanceMetrics International (GMI) gave Sun the top rating of 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 in its global survey of more than 3000 firms. GMI analyzes companies in the following categories: board accountability, financial disclosure and internal controls, shareholder rights, executive remuneration, takeover defenses and ownership base, and corporate behavior. The corporate behavior category includes issues such as management of environmental risks, labor relations, foreign-sourcing practices, and significant litigation and regulatory actions.
In another rating, the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ), Sun outperformed 50.4% of the companies in the Standard and Poor's (S&P) 500 and 94.1% of the companies in the Technology Hardware & Equipment group. Our S&P 500 Index Ranking dropped in December 2006, while our sector ranking remained almost unchanged. There were no changes to Sun's CGQ data between December 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007. Therefore, according to ISS, the drop in Sun's score within the S&P 500 Index must be due to improvements by our peers in that index.
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Sun's S&P 500 Index Score |
Sun's Technology Hardware & Equipment Industry Score |
| Year End 2005 |
34.0% |
89.1% |
| Year End 2006 |
62.8% |
95.0% |
| Current 2007 Rating* |
50.4% |
94.1% |
* Scores are current as of June 30, 2007.
Board of Directors
Changes were made to the membership of Sun's Board of Directors in fiscal 2007. All board members serve a one-year term and are subject to reelection at our Annual Meeting, usually held in October. Sun's Board of Directors at the close of fiscal 2007 included:
- Scott McNealy (Chairman)
- James L. Barksdale
- Stephen M. Bennett
- Peter L.S. Currie
- Robert J. Finocchio, Jr.
- Michael E. Marks
- Patricia E. Mitchell
- M. Kenneth Oshman
- P. Anthony Ridder
- Jonathan I. Schwartz
- Naomi O. Seligman*
*Retired from Sun's Board of Directors at the end of fiscal 2007.
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Culture of Transparency
Sun continues to demonstrate our commitment to transparency. We use a range of communication technologies to reach our shareholders more effectively, from podcasts to blog postings to updates to our corporate Web site — sun.com.
In addition to this report, our fiscal 2007 annual report is entirely Web-based. This provides information in the most convenient form for our shareholders while saving financial and natural resources.
Sun's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jonathan Schwartz, blogs regularly on company and industry subjects, providing investors and other stakeholders with regular insights into trends in our sector and how those trends impact our business.
Our culture of transparency continued to grow in fiscal 2007 with the creation of new employee blogs. These blogs provide insights into Sun from numerous sources — our CEO, executives, engineers, marketeers, and many more. And while Sun does have a policy on blog content, our employees are not required to obtain approval for their blog content, even though Sun, as a company, may not agree with everything written. That fact alone clearly demonstrates how important maintaining transparency is to Sun.
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