Deckers Brands provided an update on its ongoing Board refreshment process.
Following the company’s November 27, 2017 announcement, Deckers noted that its Board of Directors has retained a leading national director search firm and is actively engaged in a search process to identify at least two new qualified independent directors well in advance of the 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. The appointment of these new directors will coincide with an equal number of retirements from the existing Board.
As previously noted, Deckers’ Board and search firm will consider all director candidates suggested by stockholders, including those proposed by Marcato. Deckers will consider all candidates in the same fashion and any such candidates would need to participate in the same vetting and interview process. To date, Marcato has refused to allow any of its nominees to participate in the Company’s established governance and selection process.
“We thank our stockholders for the input that we have received so far on our future board composition,” said John Gibbons, chairman of the board. “We look forward to additional stockholder input, which, when combined with our customary rigorous director evaluation process, assisted by our national search firm, will result in the selection of world-class directors with the right skills and experience to assist the Board and management team in overseeing and implementing our successful business transformation strategy.”
Gibbons continued, “Rather than participate in our search process and help our efforts to continue to deliver sustainable value for our stockholders, Marcato has chosen to continue this expensive and distracting proxy fight during our most important selling season.”
As Deckers previously announced, leading proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis & Co. and Institutional Shareholder Services recommend that Deckers stockholders vote on the WHITE proxy card at Deckers’ 2017 Annual Meeting. Further, Glass Lewis recommends that Deckers stockholders vote “FOR” ALL of Deckers’ director nominees on the WHITE proxy card.
