Two Chesapeake Energy Corp. directors resigned from the board Friday at the company's annual meeting.
Non-executive directors Richard K. Davidson and V. Burns Hargis were re-elected to the board with 27% and 26%, respectively, of the votes cast, but resigned per the company's new majority voting bylaw, according to an announcement from the company.
The resignations of Messrs. Davidson and Hargis followed Chesapeake's announcement Monday that a new non-executive chairman will be added and four of the company's eight non-executive directors would be replaced with nominees of the firm's largest shareholders, Southeastern Asset Management and billionaire investor Carl Icahn.
The company announced in a statement that it will “take the necessary actions so that shareholders will have the opportunity to elect the entire Board of Directors at the 2013 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.”
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, sole trustee of the $150.3 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, hailed the vote as “a rebuke to the failed leadership of the board of directors of Chesapeake Energy,” according to a statement from Mr. DiNapoli. He said on May 29 the pension fund would vote its 3.51 million shares of the company against Messrs. Davidson and Hargis.
