Hedge fund investors seeking a seat on Disney’s board of directors were defeated.
Disney secured enough shareholder votes at its annual meeting on Wednesday to win a high-profile board battle against 81-year-old billionaire Nelson Peltz, founder and CEO of Trian Fund Management, and Jay Rasulo, former chief financial officer of Disney.
The 12 candidates recommended by Disney were elected by shareholders “by a substantial margin” over the 5 candidates put together by Trian and Blackwells, Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s senior executive vice president, announced at the shareholders meeting around 10:22 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.
Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, on February 12, 2024. (Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images)
Disney CEO Bob Iger called the issue “this distracting proxy business” after the results were announced, and said Disney was now “eager” to continue to focus on creating value for customers. shareholders.
Related: Hedge fund billionaire and Disney investor Nelson Peltz published 133 pages on how Disney should change
Peltz and Rasulo launched a months-long, multimillion-dollar campaign to secure seats on Disney’s 12-person board of directors. Peltz has taken issue with Disney’s business decisions and recently spoke to the Financial Times about his anti-casting views in Disney’s latest films.
At the board meeting, Peltz spoke for about three minutes and said, “There’s no question that Disney is an iconic company… All we want is for Disney to get back to creating great content.”
Peltz pointed out that this was the second time he was vying for a position on the board, referring to another attempt last year that he had canceled, and stated that regardless of the outcome of the vote, Trian would be watching the performance of the Disney.
Peltz was interrupted and informed that he was out of time by Gutierrez before he finished giving his statement.
Related: Here’s what Disney CEO Bob Iger told employees in a town hall speech
A March video from Disney called Peltz’s ambitions “more about vanity than faith in Disney” and Rasulo “a former Disney employee who was passed over for a promotion nearly a decade ago.” Rasulo resigned from his position as Disney’s CFO in 2015.
Blackwells Capital, another hedge fund, also named three candidates, Craig Hatkoff, Jessica Schell and Leah Solivan, to the board of directors, according to its annual meeting notice.
Gutierrez announced at the shareholders meeting that Disney did not endorse the candidates of Trian or Blackwell.
Disney instead proposed 12 directors to the board who were ultimately voted on by shareholders: Mary T. Barra, Safra A. Catz, Amy L. Chang, D. Jeremy Darroch, Carolyn N. Everson, Michael BG Froman, James P. Gorman, Robert A. Iger, Maria Elena Lagomasino, Calvin R. McDonald, Mark G. Parker, and Derica W. Rice.
Each councilor remains in office for one year.
See the Notice of Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement here.