Transgender Advocate Blackwells Capital Nominates 3 for Disney Board as Proxy War Escalates

https://mynewsla.com/hollywood/2024/01/03/blackwells-capital-nominates-3-
for-disney-board-as-proxy-war-escalates/

Adding fuel to a simmering proxy war over control of the Burbank-based 
Walt Disney Co., the Blackwells Capital group Wednesday nominated three 
people for positions on the Disney Board of Directors in a show of support 
for company CEO Bob Iger.

The move is a counter-offensive to last month’s announcement by activist 
investor Nelson Peltz’s Trian Management Fund that it was nominating two 
people — including Peltz — for spots on the board. Peltz has been highly 
critical of Iger’s leadership and the direction of the entertainment 
giant.

All of the nominations for the board will be presented to Disney 
shareholders during the company’s annual meeting this spring.

In a statement announcing its board nominees, Blackwells condemned the 
proxy battle being waged by Peltz and Trian as “a contrived campaign that 
is disconnected from the needs of Disney stakeholders.” The firm argued 
that neither Peltz nor Trian’s other nominee — former Disney CFO James 
Rasulo — has “the skillsets Trian claims the board lacks.”

“Rather, we believe Mr. Peltz’s latest effort is driven by animus against 
Mr. Iger, and an ego-driven urge to claim credit for a transformation 
already underway,” according to Blackwells.

Blackwells’ nominees for the board are former Warner Bros. and NBC 
Universal executive Jessica Schell, real estate executive and Tribeca Film 
Festival co-founder Craig Hatkoff, and venture capitalist and TaskRabbit 
co-founder Leah Solivan.

Blackwells also proposed that any current Disney board members who might 
be displaced by one of Blackwells’ nominees be immediately reinstated 
through an expansion of the board.

“Blackwells’ highly qualified candidates have the necessary backgrounds 
and expertise to support Mr. Iger’s efforts constructively, and complement 
the board,” according to a Blackwells statement. “The Trian nominees, and 
the reductive nature of its campaign do not provide shareholders those 
benefits.”

Disney issued a statement Wednesday saying only that it has “an 
experienced, diverse, and highly qualified board that is focused on the 
long-term performance of the company, strategic growth initiatives 
including the ongoing transformation of its businesses, the succession 
planning process, and increasing shareholder value.”

Disney officials said the company’s Governance and Nominating Committee 
will review the proposed Blackwells nominees and “provide a recommendation 
to the board as part of its governance process.”

Trian Fund Management announced last month that it was nominating Peltz 
and Rasulo for seats on the Disney board. Peltz had fought for a spot on 
the board earlier last year, but he dropped the effort in February when 
Iger announced a massive restructuring plan that included 7,000 layoffs 
and $5.5 billion in cost cuts.

In late November, however, Trian announced it was renewing the proxy 
battle, expressing dissatisfaction with the company’s direction. The 
company announced then that it planned to “take our case for change 
directly to shareholders.”

In a statement last month, Peltz said, “As Disney’s largest active 
shareholder, we can no longer sit idly by as the incumbent directors and 
their hand-picked replacements stand in the way of necessary change, and 
peers and competitors continue to outperform.”

“In our view, Disney’s Board has failed to fulfill its essential 
responsibilities — overseeing the development of an effective strategy, 
planning for orderly succession, aligning executive pay with performance, 
and ensuring accountability for operational execution,” Peltz said. 
“Shareholder-led board refreshment with focused and aligned directors who 
are accountable to the owners of the company is long overdue.”

Disney officials have said there is an ulterior motive behind the Trian 
proxy fight, noting Peltz’s ties with former Marvel Entertainment chairman 
Isaac Perlmutter, who was fired by Disney in March.

“Mr. Peltz, in partnership with Isaac Perlmutter, a former Disney 
executive, intends to take its case to shareholders,” according to 
Disney’s statement in November. “Mr. Perlmutter owns 78% of the shares 
that Mr. Peltz claims beneficial ownership of, or more than 25 million of 
the 33 million shares. This dynamic is relevant to assessing Mr. Peltz and 
any other nominees he may put forth as directors, as Mr. Perlmutter was 
terminated from his employment by Disney earlier this year and has voiced 
his longstanding personal agenda against Disney’s CEO, Robert A. Iger, 
which may be different than that of all other shareholders.”

Right.  In order for the there to be an agenda against, there must be 
compelling reason(s).  

After the repeated failures of Disney remakes by woke producers and weak 
unrepresentative supporting casts, it's time for Blackwell to be removed 
from all facets of Disney.  If Iger becomes a casualty of that, so be it.

His weakness and failure to address personnel activism is why Disney is in 
the mess it is today.  

-- 
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem.  It has none.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.  
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden 
fiasco, President Trump.  

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed 
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.