Matthew Rafat

Visa's First Annual Shareholder Meeting a Non-Event

Art Rimbaud: the annual shareholder is the one time ordinary investors can directly question a company and gain insight into their culture. Companies, like countries, have their own culture. I favor open, humble corporate cultures, because the more open a company is to criticism, the less likely it is to end up like Enron (just view Skilling's response to an analyst in the documentary, _The Smartest Guys in the Room_). Your comment on the number of shares I own is irrelevant, because it is precisely a company's attitude towards small investors that indicates how open it is. In addition, your comment is based on the premise is that public companies should only pay attention to institutional investors or large investors and that small investors have nothing to add. Your premise is incorrect and fails to recognize the importance of Regulation FD and the role of the small investor in keeping companies honest and responsive to the public. Recent events should demonstrate what happens when only large players are involved in decisionmaking, or when large players are insulated from public feedback.