It was recently announced that United Continental added two new board members to their company, in the attempt to settle an extensive argument of governance at the No. 3 U.S. airline by traffic. The move was somewhat questionable to a few but was aimed at a cause to end recent doubts of the company's capacity.
As per Channel News Asia, the aforementioned addition of two new board members looks to address the complaint by activists PAR Capital Management and Altimeter Capital Management in which the company may not have enough directors to handle the airlines. Statistics state that the hedge funds of United own a combined 7.1 percent.
Noted by Reuters, former Chief Executive of Orbitz Worldwide; an online travel services company and PAR partner Edward Shapiro will also be joining United's board effective the soonest. Interestingly, another director will be appointed to the position in the next six months, with the consideration of former Continental Airlines CEO Gordon Bethune as requested by the shareholders.
According to CNBC, Air Canada's former Chief Executive Robert Milton can be recalled as one of three people to join United's board over a month ago, and is slated to be Non-executive Chairman at the company's annual meeting come June of the year. As for Milton, he will be replacing retired Financial Services Executive Henry Meyer that will not stand for re-election during the annual meeting with two other directors.
The board was obliged to have veterans in the industry to take charge and aid new Chief Executive Oscar Munoz that received the duties back in September, post to being president of railroad operator CSX Corp. Unfortunately, a heart attack in October triggered Munoz to take a medical leave of absence that timed for at least five months. Munoz was appointed the task of elevating the satisfaction scores and stocks in which United has suffered a 7-percent drop in the past year, and as of recently, he implied making improvements in labor relations and new contracts for worker pay increases.
