RIM investor says vote on management structure a possibility
Posted Nov 23, 2011 01:14:01 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A leading investor in Research In Motion says the clock is ticking toward in investor vote on RIM’s management structure.
Toronto-based Northwest & Ethical Investments LP represents a sizeable number of RIM stockholders, and says it’s anxiously awaiting the findings of a review examining whether it makes sense to split up the chairman and CEO roles, currently shared by Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. The deadline for the review to completed is January 31.
Northwest’s Robert Walker tells 570 News he’ll recommend an investor vote on that option if RIM does not make a solid case against maintaining the status quo. “One of the chair’s main role, and the board’s main role is the hiring and firing of the CEO, CEO evaluation, executive compensation approval, all those kinds of oversight activities that just cannot be done if the positions are combined, with one, or in this case, two people,” he said.
Walker says there is growing sentiment among investors that the company needs to spit the dual roles. He says that pending the results of an internal RIM review of its management structure, he’ll recommend that a vote be held on the matter be held at RIM’s annual general meeting next summer; a vote he says will send a strong signal to the company, despite it being non-binding.
