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Walt Disney Board Criticized for Choosing Iger as Chairman (DIS)

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walt disneyWalt Disney’s (NYSE: DIS) Board of Directors have been severely criticized by an influential proxy advisor. The proxy advisor is upset by the fact that company’s Chief Executive Robert A. Iger has been named as the next chairman, a decision that he claims “reversed a commitment to independent board leadership.”

However, Walt Disney Co, disputed Institutional Shareholder Services’ contention in a regulatory filing Thursday, stating it “false — no such commitment was made.”


The matter of an independent board chairman has been very controversial. The issue has been going on since early 2004, when 45% of Disney’s shareholders heeded the late Roy E. Disney’s call to cast a vote of no confidence in then-Chairman and Chief Executive Michael D. Eisner.

After the shareholder vote, the Company’s board announced it would break up the positions of chairman and chief executive, and named an independent director, former Sen. George Mitchell, to serve as board chairman.

According to ISS, following the vote, the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust filed a proposal to permanently separate the roles,

Accordingly the Company changed its corporate governance guidelines to specify that the board chairman would be an independent director — unless recombining the posts would serve “the best interests of shareholders.” In that scenario, the board would clarify its decision in a statement to shareholders and name a lead independent director.

Nevertheless, the debate over the issue restarted last fall, when Disney’s board announced that Iger would take up the role of chairman upon the retirement later this month of the current chairman, John Pepper. Iger would thus hold dual role both as a chairman and CEO, until he retired as chief executive in March 2015. He would nonetheless, continue as a chairman through June 30, 2016.

 

 

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edliston
Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.


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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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