January 13, 2009
Icahn-Proofing Your Board
– Broc Romanek, CompensationStandards.com
A while back, I blogged about how Carl Icahn was challenging the role of compensation consultants and asked if any consultant wanted to respond. The only answer I got was this:
My response is “who cares what Carl Ichan thinks?” Hasn’t he lost enough money recently, demonstrating his fading investment acumen, that his point of
view is not a good indicator of effective governance? Responding to his point of view only further publicizes his point of view and many reading that will assign further legitimacy to it.
Interestingly, Carl recently posted this rebuttal in advance of an article coming soon from Corporate Board Member about Icahn-proofing your board. Attacking Carl surely will be well-received in many corporate quarters – and likely will attract media attention (like this!) – but in Icahn-proofing the board, you probably are also insulating it from legitimate questioning by concerned investors. We’ll have to wait for the article to see what it says (if the article indeed is coming; it wasn’t part of their Jan/Feb. edition)…