A new “anti-woke” investment fund is eyeing an activist raid on Starbucks — with executives reportedly set to unveil their blueprint for taking on the java giant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Thursday.
The fledgling startup’s fund, named the Azoria Meritocracy ETF, will invest in companies in the S&P 500 with the exception of a few dozen that its managers conclude employ quantitative commitments to diversity when recruiting employees, its CEO James Fishback said in an interview.
Fishback and his Azoria Partners co-founder Asaf Abramovich have drummed up a list of some three dozen companies it will blacklist over their alleged “wokery.”
The Financial Times reported on Thursday that one of Azoria’s targets is Starbucks.
Starbucks has denied that it has “targets or quotas at any stage of the hiring process,” according to the FT.
The company told the FT that a supposed goal to reach racial and ethnic diversity of at least 30% among its staff was merely an aspiration.
Starbucks shares were down less than 1% Thursday, at just under $100.
Fishback, who previously worked for David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital as a trader until an acrimonious split in the summer of 2023, aims to raise $1 billion by the end of 2025.
“Americans, whether they voted for President Trump or not, do not want to invest in companies running woke science experiments,” Fishback told the Financial Times.
“We are representing shareholders here, and human capital hiring quotas — that hurts all shareholders,” he added. “Cut that crap out. Hire the best and brightest. Don’t apologize for it, make money, give it to shareholders, and do the right thing.”
The incoming Trump administration has vowed to crack down on the controversial DEI initiatives across the entire federal government and some companies fear that they too could be targeted.
The event at the president-elect’s private members resort will feature speeches from Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, a prominent right-wing think tank, and Cathie Wood, founder of Ark Investment Management.
Starbucks stock has spiked roughly 20% since August after the company appointed ex-Chipotle boss Brian Nicol as its new CEO to turn around the floundering business.
Elliott Management, the activist fund owned by Wall Street titan Paul Singer, built a stake in the coffee giant that eventually led to the ouster of ex-chief executive Laxman Narasimhan.
Self-styled woke capitalists have irked Republicans and their allies on Wall Street in recent years, with former presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy taking aim at so-called ESG policies.
Environmental, social and governance strategies focus on elements such as racial justice and climate change, but conservatives say they harm investments made by ordinary Americans.
Two industry analysts who declined to be named were skeptical of whether it is possible to demonstrate a correlation between any underperformance and a company’s recruiting policies.
Others questioned whether the ETF would gain traction and said ESG-focused funds may not be out of favor.
“Investors may turn further to ESG ETFs because they believe the government will not fully support their personal objectives,” said Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF research at VettaFi.
He declined to comment on the Azoria ETF.
Bryan Armour, ETF analyst at Morningstar, said a small ETF may struggle to exert leverage on corporate America.
“It will be really hard to gain power and influence,” Armour said.
