So different parties will perform different roles on the exchange?

Yes. This is true of most any exchange, including The Global Proxy Exchange. Four distinct roles will be played by participants on the exchange—with some participants playing more than one role.

First, there are institutions—such as mutual funds, brokers, pension funds and insurance companies. They hold equities on behalf off investors. They assign the proxy rights to the exchange, depositing the rights into the accounts of those investors. We call those assigning institutions assigners, and we call the investors who receive the rights beneficiaries—because they are the beneficial owners of the proxy rights. If a beneficiary transfers her rights to another party on the exchange, that other party is an aggregator. The name reflects the fact that the receiving party may be receiving rights from multiple parties and is, hence, aggregating smaller blocks of rights into one larger block of rights. An aggregator may vote the rights it receives, or it may pass them on to still another aggregator. Regardless, all rights will ultimately end up in the account of some party who votes them. That party is called a voter.

In summary, four roles will be played on the exchange:

1. assigners: institutions such as mutual funds, brokerages, pension funds and insurers that legally assign proxy rights to the exchange;

2. beneficiaries: the beneficial stock owners—primarily individual investors—on whose behalf those rights are assigned;

3. aggregators: anyone willing to accept rights from beneficiaries or other aggregators; and

4. voters: parties who ultimately make voting decisions.

Let’s consider an example to understand how some participants will play multiple roles. Suppose a woman and her father are both investors in a mutual fund. The mutual fund assigns its proxy rights to the proxy exchange, identifying the woman and her father (along with other investors) as the beneficial owners. The father transfers his rights to the woman. She then transfers their combined rights to a charity, which votes the shares. In this case, the mutual fund is an assigner; the father is a beneficiary; the woman is both a beneficiary and an aggregator; and the charity is an aggregator and a voter.

Transferring, aggregating, and/or voting rights can be done by anyone who chooses to—individuals, charities, professional associations, trade unions, advocacy groups, investment advisers, faith-based organizations—anyone. An online community will develop. Tips and ideas will be exchanged. Upcoming votes will be discussed. Referrals will be made, as in, “You want to unload your IBM? Give ‘em to Joe. He knows the company inside and out, and he thinks the way you do. Check out his record.”