Earlier this month, Stada proposed a slate of four new directors–but now, as promised, its rebel shareholder is out with an alternative lineup.
Monday, Active Ownership Capital revealed its own desired boardroom edits, which include ousting Chairman Martin Abend and Deputy Chairman Carl Ferdinand Oetker, Reuters reports. Active Ownership also isn’t too keen on Gunnar Riemann or Birgit Kudlek, two of Stada’s prospective appointments.
Instead, the proxy brawler–which holds about a 7% Stada stake–is asking its fellow investors to support the nomination of former Novartis compliance officer Eric Cornut; one-time Hexal CEO Hans-Helmut Fabry and CFO Klaus-Joachim Krauth; and Ursula Schuetze-Kreilkamp, who specializes in coaching leadership personnel. It’s fine with Stada’s other two nominees, Opel exec Tina Mueller and Amgen exec Rolf Hoffmann.
Tensions between the two sides have been brewing for a while now. After appearing to strike an accord back in May–under which Active Ownership would have replaced just three board members, instead of the 5 it initially wanted–Stada decided to go its own way, announcing it would make its own picks for replacement candidates.
Now, it’ll be up to shareholders to make a choice at the company’s annual meeting on Aug. 26. And the way Active Ownership sees it, it’s a crucial one–especially now that Stada’s directors may need to replace longtime chief Hartmut Retzlaff, who took a leave of absence for health reasons in early June.
“Should Mr. Retzlaff not return, it will surely be the task of the new supervisory board to overhaul the management board in a sensible fashion,” Active Ownership partner Florian Schuhbauer told the news service, noting that interim helmsman Matthias Wiedenfels doesn’t have the industry experience necessary to run the company.
Meanwhile, though, Wiedenfels has already begun doing just that, starting off with some more shuffling of Stada’s top ranks. Recently, Reuters reported that he’d stripped Retzlaff’s son, Steffen, of some of his duties and fired a group of external advisers.
By Carly Helfand
Source: Fierce Pharma
The Food and Drug Administration’s top scientist Namandjé Bumpus will assume the role of principal deputy commissioner when longtime agency leader Janet Woodcock retires from that role in early 2024, according to an announcement Thursday.
US biopharma AbbVie has agreed to acquire ImmunoGen in a deal which values the company at about $10.1 billion and gives AbbVie access to flagship cancer therapy Elahere (mirvetuximab soravtansine-gynx), a first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) approved for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROC), as well as a pipeline of promising next-generation ADCs.
EUROAPI today announced the appointment of David Seignolle as Chief Operating Officer, succeeding Eric Berger, and Marion Santin as Chief Legal, Compliance, and IP Officer, both joining the company’s Executive Committee. In his new role, David Seignolle will lead the transformation of the Industrial Operations organization.
