Michael Dell stepped back into the CEO chair of his namesake company to save it from impending doom. But his efforts have failed, and it looks like Dell
In this week's annual shareholder meeting, more than 25% of the voting shares withheld Dell's eponymous founder from re-election. While a 75% majority would be a crushing triumph in an election for public office, these board-seat votes don't work like that. Remember when Walt Disney
Dell's vote of no-confidence isn't quite as strong as Eisner's, but it's in the next ballpark over. Not only that, but four other board members also racked up some bad numbers. To wit:
Candidate |
% for |
% Withheld |
---|---|---|
James Breyer, Accel Management partner |
99.2% |
0.8% |
Judy Lewent, former CFO of Merck |
99.1% |
0.9% |
Klaus Luft, advisor of Goldman Sachs |
98.7% |
1.3% |
Alex Mandl, non-executive chairman of Gemalto |
97.0% |
3.0% |
Shantanu Narayen, president of Adobe Systems |
96.6% |
3.4% |
Ross Perot, needs no introduction |
89.0% |
11.0% |
William Gray, head of public policy at a law firm |
82.6% |
17.4% |
Sam Nunn, former Democratic Senator |
82.4% |
17.6% |
Donald Carty, former CEO of AMR |
81.7% |
18.3% |
Thomas Luce, career lawyer |
76.3% |
23.7% |
Michael Dell |
74.9% |
25.1% |
I don't know exactly why Luce, Carty, Nunn, and Gray scored so many "nay" votes. These names pop up often in CEO-picking roles like leading the nominating committee (Gray), serving on the management development committee (though chairman Breyer got much love), and leading the corporate governance committee (Gray again). Feel free to find a pattern here.
Does Michael Dell deserve a public tar-and-feathers routine? Since he became CEO again in 2007, Dell's sales have dwindled as Hewlett-Packard
But hey, I've heard that there are a few open CEO positions in the electronics industry these days, and a corresponding bunch of former (or soon-to-be-former) CEOs looking for work. It's time for some executive musical chairs!