Economics
Icahn, Loeb and Other Activists Overlook Women for Board Seats
- Icahn didn't nominate any women among 42 proposed as directors
- `You have to wonder whether activists care about this'
This article is for subscribers only.
Carl Icahn has nominated 42 people to fill 94 board seats at public companies ranging from EBay Inc. to Herbalife Ltd. in the past five years. Not a single one was a woman.
Other activist investors, including Dan Loeb and his Third Point Partners fund and Jeffrey Ubben of ValueAct Capital Management, haven’t done much better. Since the beginning of 2011, five of the biggest U.S. activist funds have sought at least 174 board positions and landed 108, yet nominated women just seven times, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The women candidates got five seats, or 5 percent of the total.