Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2021 Thomson Reuters Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I am David Thomson, Chairman of Thomson Reuters. I shall be chairing the proceedings today. This is the second year that our AGM is completely virtual. Our goal is to approximate the experience of a meeting held in person, including the opportunity to participate in the meeting and, for our shareholders and our proxy holders, to vote and ask questions. I am joined on the webcast today by Steve Hasker, our Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board, Mike Eastwood, our Chief Financial Officer, David Binet, our Deputy Chairman, Vance Opperman, our Lead Independent Director, Tom Kim, our Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary, Mary Alice Vuicic, our Chief People Officer, and Alex Thompson, our Chief Communications Officer.
Other members of the Board of Directors and the company's senior management team are also joining us today. The company's auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, are also attending today's meeting. I would like to briefly outline the format of the meeting. First, I will deal with the formal business of the meeting, as outlined in the circular. I will then make a few general comments on our business. Our CEO, Steve Hasker, will then comment on our 2020 performance and what lies ahead for our company. Thereafter, we will answer questions or comments from shareholders. While the format I have outlined will assist in the handling of the formal matters, it is not intended to discourage anyone from asking a question or making a comment in reference to any resolution after it has been proposed and seconded.
We will address any questions that directly relate to a particular resolution at the appropriate time during the meeting, and we will save general questions for the question-and-answer period following the formal business of the meeting. On that note, I will now go through the instructions that will allow shareholders and proxy holders to vote during the meeting and ask questions. If you logged into the meeting as a guest, you will be able to listen to the meeting, but you will not be able to vote or ask questions. If you wish to submit a comment or question in writing, select the messaging icon at the top of your screen, then type your message in the text box and submit your comment or question.
If you would like to speak from the floor by live audio, by making a comment, or asking a question by phone, please type your phone number in the messaging text box and submit it. An operator from Lumi Global, our virtual meeting provider, will call you later in the meeting. Any phone numbers submitted will be kept confidential and will not be shared with other participants in today's meeting. If your question relates to one of the voting items of business, please indicate whether you would like to ask your question at the appropriate time during the meeting. Otherwise, we plan to address more general questions during the Q&A session of the meeting. When submitting comments or questions, please indicate whether you are a shareholder or a proxy holder.
Our Chief Communications Officer, Alex Thompson, will receive and read submitted questions, which will be addressed by an appropriate member of Thomson Reuters management or the board. If there are questions on the same topic or that seem to be repetitive, we will look to address one of them and mention that we received other similar questions. As a matter of courtesy, we ask that you limit yourself to one question or comment so everyone who wishes to participate in the meeting will have a chance to do so. We will respond to as many questions as possible during the meeting. If we are not able to address any questions during the meeting, we plan to post questions and answers on our website after the meeting. We also plan to post a recording of this meeting on the thomsonreuters.com website after the meeting.
I would like to note that today's meeting contains forward-looking statements and non-IFRS financial measures. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other risks discussed in reports and filings that we provide from time to time to regulatory agencies. You may access these documents on our website or by contacting our Investor Relations Department. Please refer to these documents, notably our most recent annual report and Q1 report, for additional information regarding risk factors and non-IFRS financial measures. Now, on to voting. As is generally the case, the vast majority of shareholders have submitted their votes in advance of the meeting, and only a very small number of shareholders have decided to vote at the meeting. I want to thank all those shareholders who exercised their right to vote in advance.
Voting during the meeting can only be done through our virtual meeting platform. To vote, you should have logged into the meeting as a shareholder by following the login instructions contained in the voting information and how to attend section of the circular. If you voted in advance of the meeting and you do not wish to revoke or change your previously submitted proxies, you should not vote again during the meeting. A voting panel will be displayed on your screen when it is time to vote on a particular resolution or item of business. After you vote, a message confirming that your vote has been received should appear. If you do not click for, against, withheld, or abstain as applicable when voting is open, your vote will not be recorded, and you will be considered to have abstained from voting.
Voting will remain open for all matters being voted on until the last item of formal business is concluded. Votes may be changed up to the time the voting is closed. We will have four items of business today for shareholders to vote on: the election of directors, the appointment of the auditor, an advisory resolution on executive compensation, and a shareholder proposal. All of the matters to be considered today require the approval of a simple majority of votes cast. The polls are now open on all matters. I have asked Tom Kim to act as secretary of the meeting, and I would like to ask Thomas to table the notice calling the meeting and proof that such notice and the related circular and proxy have been distributed or made available to shareholders.
Mr. Chairman, I have done so.
Thank you, Tom. I will ask Tom and Steve to move and second motions put before the meeting as proxy holders. Shareholders and proxy holders logged into the virtual meeting platform will be able to vote on each resolution or item of business. I have appointed representatives of our transfer agent, Computershare Trust Company of Canada, to act as scrutineers of the meeting. They have advised me that a quorum is present. We will conduct the vote on each resolution by ballot. The ballots will be tabulated and the results announced before the end of the meeting. I will now ask Tom Kim to table the consolidated financial statements of the corporation for the year ended December 31, 2020, and the auditor's report thereon.
Mr. Chairman, I have done so.
Thank you, Tom. A copy of the annual report, which includes the financial statements, has been made available to shareholders and is available in the investor relations section of our website at thomsonreuters.com. Steve Hasker will be commenting on these results in a few minutes. Should anyone have any questions relating to the annual report, the financial statements, or questions of a more general nature, we would be pleased to respond to them following Steve's remarks. The first item of business is the election of directors. 14 directors are to be elected at the meeting this year. Information regarding the nominees proposed for election as directors is set out in the circular that accompanied the notice of this meeting. All of the nominees are currently directors of our company. I now declare the meeting open for nominations.
Mr. Chairman, I nominate David Thomson, Steve Hasker, Kirk E. Arnold, David W. Binet, W. Edmund Clark, Michael E. Daniels, Kirk Koenigsbauer, Deanna Oppenheimer, Vance K. Opperman, Simon Paris, Kim M. Rivera, Barry Salzberg, Peter J. Thomson, and Wulf von Schimmelmann as directors of the corporation to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are duly elected or appointed.
Thank you, Tom. Alex, have we received any questions or comments on this item?
Mr. Chairman, no, we have not.
Thank you, Alex. If there are no further nominations, I declare the nominations closed. We will now proceed with voting on this matter. If you have not voted yet, please vote now by selecting for or withhold as it appears below the name of each individual director on the voting panel. We will now proceed with the next item of business, which is the appointment of the auditor. I now ask Tom to make this motion.
Mr. Chairman, I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP be appointed auditor of the corporation until the next annual meeting of shareholders and that the directors be authorized to fix their remuneration.
Thank you, Tom. I now ask Steve to second that motion.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Thank you, Steve. Alex, have we received any questions or comments on this item?
Mr. Chairman, no, we have not.
Thank you, Alex. If you have not voted yet, please vote now by selecting for or withhold for this item. The next item of business is the advisory resolution on our approach to executive compensation described in the circular. As this is an advisory resolution, the results will not be binding on the board. However, the board intends to take the voting results into account as appropriate when considering future compensation matters. This type of resolution is often referred to as a say-on-pay vote. This item of business is described in the circular. I now ask Tom to make this motion.
Mr. Chairman, I move that the advisory resolution on executive compensation set forth in the 2021 Management Proxy Circular be approved.
Thank you, Tom. I now ask Steve to second that motion.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Thank you, Steve. Alex, have we received any questions or comments on this item?
Mr. Chairman, no, we have not.
Thank you, Alex. If you have not voted yet, please vote now by selecting for or against for this item. The final item of business before Steve Hasker and I make our remarks and you have an opportunity to ask questions is a shareholder proposal submitted by the BC Government and Service Employees' Union General Fund and the BC Government and Service Employees' Union Defence Fund. The shareholder proposal is set out in Appendix B of the circular. Appendix B of the circular also includes a statement from the Thomson Reuters Board of Directors explaining the reasons why we have recommended that shareholders vote against the proposal.
At this time, I would ask that Emma Pullman, the representative of the BC Government and Service Employees' Union General Fund and the BC Government and Service Employees' Union Defence Fund, present the shareholder proposal and make a motion that it be put to a vote. I understand that Tom Kim will then second the motion.
Good afternoon, shareholders. Can you hear me okay?
I believe so. Emma?
Am I heard?
You are, yes.
We're here. Yes.
Thank you so much. Good afternoon, fellow shareholders. The shareholder proposal before you asks the Thomson Reuters Board to prepare a human rights risk report related to contracts with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and Department of Homeland Security. Thomson Reuters' recently announced Change Program will shift the company from a content provider to a content-driven technology company. As the company focuses increasingly on data analytics and machine learning to grow revenues, we'll see contracts like those with ICE and Homeland Security continue to grow. Our company has so far failed to incorporate any framework to meaningfully assess and mitigate human rights risks in light of the Change Program, and this presents a risk to shareholder value. Both Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis agree that shareholders deserve more information on human rights risk, particularly following the implementation of the Change Program.
ISS's analysis concludes that, "The company's Trust Principles which governed it as a media company no longer appear to be sufficient in addressing the human rights risks that may arise from the company's changing business." Furthermore, ISS notes that there is no process to address the access to information risks as well as related human rights risk and chain of board management accountability. The absence of clear policies and processes to mitigate these human rights risks and manage future risks as our company transforms to an AI technology company underscores why support of this proposal is warranted. Thomson Reuters says that its contracts with ICE have terminated. However, Thomson Reuters still has at least $52 million in contracts with the Department of Homeland Security, including nearly $40 million in active contracts with ICE.
Thomson Reuters' own technology peers like Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, and RELX, which is the owner of Thomson Reuters' competitor LexisNexis and Salesforce.com, have each adopted a range of different human rights risk management frameworks to address the unique changes in the tech landscape. Each are aligned by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. UNGPs require human rights due diligence and engagement with affected stakeholders. Thomson Reuters has not yet taken this first critical step. Thomson Reuters' ongoing contracts with government agencies, as described, continue to be a cause for concern for any investor who cares about human rights risk.
Therefore, be it resolved, shareholders request the board produce a human rights risk report identifying the potential human rights risk in its business, particularly after Change Program implementation, and comparing its procedures, if any, for identifying and mitigating human rights risk against those of other prominent technology companies. We ask all shareholders, including the Woodbridge Company, to support this proposal. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Pullman. May I have a seconder for that motion?
Mr. Chairman, to facilitate the business of the meeting, I second the motion.
Thank you, Tom. We appreciate BCGEU's comments, and I would like to acknowledge the thoughtfulness of the shareholder proposal. Prior to this meeting, Thomson Reuters engaged in a dialogue with the shareholders, which provided us with an opportunity to hear their perspectives and for us to share ours. Perhaps we could take a minute to comment on the proposal. While the Proxy Circular contains a detailed response from our board, I would like to ask Steve Hasker to make a few remarks.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd be happy to. I'd also like to thank BCGEU for its shareholder proposal. We welcome constructive feedback from our stakeholders, and we continue to listen to the feedback we receive, and we have been engaging in a growing number of discussions to better understand the views of our investors. Thomson Reuters takes its role as a good corporate citizen very seriously, and we have a long history of leading with values. We endeavor to strengthen society, and our people consider our company a place that helps them play a positive role in society. We are proud of the various diversity and inclusion-related awards and recognitions that we have received as an employer. We promote and encourage volunteerism by our employees in our local communities, and we are redoubling efforts to address converging crises, including economic uncertainty, social inequality, rising disinformation, and climate change.
All of this motivates me and my colleagues each day. As we embark on our Change Program, we're staying aligned with the interests of our customers, shareholders, and other stakeholders. Transitioning to a simpler organization should be seen as a positive, and we believe it will allow us to have greater impact in the markets that we serve. We understand that companies that do not properly address and respect human rights concerns are exposed to a host of risks, be they reputational, financial, strategic, or otherwise. So we actively review our best practices for identifying and mitigating human rights risks. We are sharpening our focus on ESG, or Environmental, Social, and Governance matters. ESG oversight now sits with the Corporate Governance Committee of our board, and we have a more holistic, cohesive view of its components.
I believe better integration of ESG into our business strategy and operations will enhance our efforts to drive our business and the interests of our shareholders. I would like to comment on part of the proposal which refers to our CLEAR Business. CLEAR is one of our risk, fraud, and compliance businesses. As mentioned in our response to the shareholder proposal, we no longer have a CLEAR contract with ICE as it expired at the end of February. We continue to see a net societal benefit to providing CLEAR and similar products to law enforcement to help them do their jobs, provided, of course, that they are using our products for specified permissible uses under applicable regulations. We believe the company is already addressing the concerns raised in the shareholder proposal through established channels and mechanisms that we discuss in our response in the proxy circular.
For these and other reasons outlined in the proxy circular, our management team and our board of directors believe that producing a separate report related to human rights risks would be redundant, inefficient, and would not enhance our company's efforts and objectives in this area. Thank you for the opportunity to share this, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Steve. Alex, have we received any questions or comments on this item?
No, Mr. Chairman, we have not.
Thank you, Alex. If you have not voted yet, please vote now by selecting for, against, or abstain for this item. I would like to remind you that the Thomson Reuters Board of Directors has recommended voting against this proposal, the reasons outlined in the circular. If you haven't already and wish to do so, please ensure that you have cast your votes through the online platform. The polls will close momentarily. While we are waiting for the results of the voting, we shall proceed to the other business of the meeting. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today. I remain ever grateful for the goodwill of our shareholders.
Many of you have been alongside us for decades, and your presence during such uncertain times, as defined by a global pandemic, tumultuous geopolitical events, and a phenomenal digital transformation affecting every facet of our lives, makes us truly appreciative. Thank you. I would like to acknowledge the extraordinary contribution of our CEO, Steve Hasker, in his first year at Thomson Reuters. We are buoyed greatly by his leadership and the inspired efforts of his team in placing our people and our customers first. Steve's presence at the helm has begun to shape a striking vision for our company. In casting back to last year's virtual meeting, elements of the initial shock and uncertainty surrounding the pandemic have subsided. Challenges remain amidst a wide spectrum of preparedness globally, and yet a sense of optimism prevails. Blessings are evident amongst the tragedy. Thomson Reuters is eager to embrace our next chapter.
Trust underscores everything we do and defines the deep relationships long established with our customers. The latter has developed over years, led by exceptional people, products, and the domain knowledge. Our market-leading positions, historically strong financial footing, and sustainable subscription models provide a remarkable foundation. The scope for improvement remains considerable, and in doing so, we are able to act proactively, a rare privilege. The advantage must be utilized first and foremost for the benefit of our customers. Thomson Reuters must find ways to improve and transform their experience with us. World-class technology, the highest quality content, and artificial intelligence are central to these efforts. An emphasis upon risk-taking and organic growth is paramount. I believe that our customers, our business, and our society stand to benefit from all the above.
I will close by welcoming two new directors to our board since our last shareholder meeting, Deanna Oppenheimer and Simon Paris, both of whom bring a breadth of experience and strong counsel to the boardroom. Now it is my privilege to welcome Steve Hasker, the company's President and CEO, to make some remarks.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all of you for joining us today. Since our last AGM, so much of our world has changed, and yet so much remains in flux. While some of us are seeing a gradual return to normalcy, other parts of the world are going through their darkest hours of the pandemic. While remote working now feels like second nature to many, the endless challenges of balancing personal and professional life remain. And for many of our customers, time, cost, and regulatory pressures are on the rise. So I want to acknowledge the vital work our colleagues were able to push through over the past year. When the world's most informed professionals needed us the most, we were there for them. And that simply would not have happened without support from you, our shareholders. Thank you. Today, I'd like to focus on three areas.
First, a recap of our recent financial performance and expected performance over the next two years. Then I'll talk about our Change Program, which we announced in February, so you can hear how we're positioning ourselves to address our customers' evolving needs. And finally, I'll touch on the role Thomson Reuters plays in tackling some of the major challenges our communities and society face. Now, on our performance. During an extraordinary year with the only constant uncertainty, the fact that we were able to achieve strong financial results, including meeting or exceeding our guidance targets for revenue growth, Adjusted EBITDA margin, and Free Cash Flow, speaks to the underlying resilience of our markets and business. For 2020, we posted organic revenue growth of 1%, and our Big Three businesses, legal professionals, corporates, and tax and accounting professionals saw organic growth of 4%.
Adjusted EBITDA increased 32% to nearly $2 billion, reflecting a margin of 33% for the year. This strong performance resulted in adjusted earnings per share of $1.85 versus $1.29 in 2019. We are particularly pleased that free cash flow per share was $2.67, exceeding the target of $2.40 per share that we provided in 2018. Our first quarter results for 2021 also showed a strong start. Our total revenues were up 4%, with organic revenues rising 3%. The core businesses performed especially well, with the big three segments posting 5% organic growth, representing our best first quarter since the sale of Refinitiv. Given this strong start, we have also increased the bottom end of our full-year revenue guidance for the whole company and the big three businesses.
We reaffirmed our three-year guidance provided in February, which anticipates organic revenue growth between 4% and 5% in 2022 and 5%-6% in 2023. More than just telling a strong financial story, our performance reflects our determination to find new ways to combine trusted content with world-class talent and technology for our customers. On that topic, I'll move now to our Change Program. This is an ambitious plan to transform Thomson Reuters over the next two years from a holding company to an operating company and from a content company to a content-driven technology company. At its root, this is about creating a significantly improved experience for all of our customers as they face great transformation and change. And it's about becoming a more effective and efficient organization to serve them. Vitally, it will release capital to allow us to reinvest back in our core businesses.
The program is comprised of four areas, with work underway for months now. First, we're focused on a reimagined customer experience. We're creating fast, frictionless, and easy ways for our customers to connect with us how they want to, increasingly on digital platforms, from marketing to support to billing and account management. We aim to become significantly easier to do business with. Second, we're optimizing our products and portfolio, emphasizing a smaller number of high-growth product categories already considered essential by our customers. This will create a more focused and integrated set of products that will enhance our customers' businesses. Third, we're leveraging technology far more. We're scaling up machine learning, AI, and creating shared platforms in an advanced, intuitive way. This will result in a modernized technology operation that can easily be deployed across our customer base. And finally, we're building and strengthening an inclusive culture of world-class talent.
This is the bedrock of our business. Thomson Reuters already employs some of the best and brightest in the industries we serve, and I'm proud to work with such a talented group of people. We're growing our internal talent and giving them opportunities by increasing investment in training and development, and to complement that, we've made some fantastic external hires. This will result in a self-replenishing pipeline of world-class internal talent. While it's early days for our Change Program, we're on track, and I'm pleased with the progress we're making. I look forward to providing updates when we report our financial results each quarter. As we move forward, we believe that market conditions will continue to play to our strengths. We enjoy industry-leading positions in stable, robust markets. We're defined by an admired brand, trusted partnerships, and a highly talented and engaged group of colleagues across the world.
Technology adoption has also accelerated, another trend that benefits our company. Customers are increasingly looking to trusted providers. While we remain focused on how we can provide more value, it's important not to lose sight of the bigger picture. As a business, we power the world's most informed professionals, and we are energized to think about the role they play, upholding the rule of law, turning the wheels of commerce, catching bad actors, reporting the facts, and informing people, companies, and communities globally. In everything we do, we strive to shape a world that is more inclusive and collaborative, pursuing access to justice, truth, transparency, and a sustainable future. We believe businesses have a role to play to this end, so we support the United Nations Global Compact's Sustainable Development Initiatives.
In October, we hosted the U.S. Country Consultation on Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, bringing together some of the world's largest businesses to develop a plan for building stronger societies. We've adopted the most ambitious goal of the Science Based Targets initiative, a global collaboration to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement by limiting global temperature rise in line with climate science. As part of this, we're now using 100% renewable energy for all our global operations. We've made a public commitment to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2050 or sooner, and we're ahead of the plan. While we have clearly and publicly denounced racism in all its forms, we also recognize the urgent action that's needed to back this up.
We have set and published goals to increase overall racial and ethnic diversity in our senior leadership levels to 20% or more by the end of 2022, while also doubling the number of Black employees in those roles. This is not just the right thing to do. It's central to our future success. I also want to recognize homegrown efforts to help improve our communities. Last year, while balancing work with health and family responsibilities, our people volunteered over 84,000 hours and donated over $1.3 million to charitable organizations. Last, I would like to highlight Reuters' commitment to fact-based reporting, now for 169 years. For the last year, during a time when conspiracy theories, manipulated media, and misinformation created confusion and uncertainty around the world, Reuters found new and meaningful ways to make an impact.
Reuters partnered with Facebook on a third-party fact-checking program to verify content posted on social media channels and to identify content that is false or misleading. Reuters also extended a partnership with the National Association for Media Literacy Education to create and publish resources to help fight with the COVID-19 infodemic and provide guidance on how to seek out resources and facts and help to flatten the curve of misinformation. This, of course, is in addition to the work Reuters does each day to shine light on some of the most opaque corners of the world and produce heavy-hitting, award-winning journalism, so as we evolve and innovate into the future, we do so rooted in the values that brought us to where we are today.
I'll close by thanking all of you again for the role you play in these tremendous efforts, and I hope you're excited about what we are accomplishing together. We would now like to take the opportunity to take questions or comments. And if you have a question or comment, please select the messaging icon at the top of your screen, type your message and/or phone number into the text box, and then submit your question or comment. Thank you.
Thank you, Steve. I'm going to pause for a second at this point to ensure that people have time to submit questions.
Mr. Chairman, we do not have any questions or comments at this time.
Thank you, Alex. I will now report on the voting tabulation based on preliminary results provided to us by the scrutineers.
We wish to report that more than 90% of the eligible shares voted at this meeting. I'm pleased to report that the 14 directors standing for election have been elected as directors of the corporation to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are duly elected or appointed. Each nominee received in excess of 96% votes in favor. I can also report that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has been appointed as auditor of the corporation until the next annual meeting of shareholders and that the directors have been authorized to fix their remuneration. Approximately 99% voted in favor. I can confirm that the advisory resolution on our approach to executive compensation has been approved. Over 98% voted in favor. And finally, I can confirm that the shareholder proposal set forth in the circular has not been approved.
Approximately 81% voted against the shareholder proposal, and approximately 19% voted for the proposal. There were over 2.9 million abstentions for this voting item. The specific details of the voting results will be made publicly available in the next few days, most likely at some point tomorrow. I believe Tom has a motion to terminate the meeting.
Mr. Chairman, I move that the meeting terminate.
Thank you, Tom. I now ask Steve to second that motion.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Thank you, Steve. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes this meeting. I would like to thank you, our shareholders, for attending our virtual annual meeting today. On behalf of Thomson Reuters and our board, we wish for your health and safety. This meeting is now terminated. Thank you.