General Mills and the employee ultimately agreed to settle out of court and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a probe it had launched without bringing a case.
Sanger did not return a request for comment and Sard declined to comment on his behalf. The whistleblower could not be reached.
Nancy Bush, an analyst with NAB Research who owns Wells Fargo shares, said she was unaware of the General Mills episode, but thought it should not affect Tuesday's vote. Instead, shareholders should focus on Sanger's track record at Wells Fargo, she said, echoing a sentiment shared by other analysts and investors reached by Reuters.
"In the years since the financial crisis ... a corporation's obligation to listen to whistleblowers has changed – very much so," Bush said. "I don't think the experience of 2004 is necessarily applicable to today's environment."
Attorneys and consultants who work with whistleblowers and their employers say management teams must show they take internal complaints seriously, even if their first instinct is to dismiss them as unimportant or flawed. Among the steps they recommend: allowing employees to report problems anonymously, and following up on reports without trying to identify whistleblowers.
Having third parties run whistleblower hotlines, analyze corporate culture and compensation practices, and survey the satisfaction of employees also helps to avoid getting blindsided. A spate of recent high-profile whistleblower cases shows many companies still have work to do.
Blood-testing company Theranos downplayed concerns of a whistleblower until The Wall Street Journal reported last year that its tests were flawed. Regulators have since barred it from the blood-testing business for two years.
Fox News recently ousted its CEO and top television host Bill O'Reilly, and has paid millions of dollars in settlements, after years of employees' sexual harassment complaints. Volkswagen ended up paying more than $20 billion in fines and reparations over rigged emissions tests, something it could have avoided if it had listened to a whistleblower in 2011.
And in the financial industry, Barclays PLC Chief Executive Jes Staley is now being investigated by two UK regulators for inappropriately using a security team to track down a whistleblower.
This article was provided by Reuters.