Did the Board Learn From Its Mistakes?
No! When Ms. Morrison left, the Incumbent Board responded by installing one of its own, Keith McLoughlin, former chief executive of a vacuum cleaner company. While a board member stepping in as an interim CEO should, in our view, receive an appropriate stipend, we are shocked at the amount this Board has decided to bestow on an insider to simply hold the wheel while the Company takes its time – nearly six months and counting – to find a permanent leader after finding itself left in the lurch when it failed in its essential duty to plan for succession.
Once again, this Board is giving away your money without any connection to performance.Mr. McLoughlin is being paid a base salary ofmore than $1 million and received a shockingly high $3 million restricted stock grant, which vests in full when a successor CEO is appointed (or, if earlier, 12 months from the date of the grant).
What has Mr. McLoughlin done to show shareholders he deserves this compensation package? It cannot be that the Incumbent Board believed Mr. McLoughlin would instill a sense of confidence in the market;the stock lost $1.5 billion in value on the day he was appointed. The Incumbent Board’s failure to plan for Ms. Morrison’s successor has resulted in a windfall for one of their own. Shareholders deserve better.
The Facts on the Independent Slate’s Plan:
Third Point is confident we can identify a world-class CEO who will modernize products, improve employee morale, and help shareholders. We have done this before, serving on the compensation committees of other public companies and looking out for shareholder interests first. Third Point is determined to bring a culture of accountability, with greater board engagement and fair pay for performance. No one minds paying fairly for a CEO who benefits everyone but paying tens of millions of dollars to a CEO who benefitted almost no one is just insulting.
The Independent Slate is running to replace the Incumbent Board because we believe that with a flat stock price over 20 years, Campbell has been focused on serving someone other than its public shareholders and employees.
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Your Vote Is Important, No Matter How Many or How Few Shares You Own!
PLEASE REMEMBER TO CAN THE COMPANY’S CARD! If you return a Campbell’s proxy card – even by simply indicating “withhold” on the Company’s slate – you will revoke any vote you had previously submitted for the Third Point nominees on the WHITE proxy card.