Photo: John Wobensmith, Genco Shipping CEO
U.S. headquartered drybulk shipowner Genco Shipping & Trading revealed this week that its board of directors has unanimously rejected the proposed nomination of Randee Day and Robert Pons by George Economou through his entity GK Investor LLC to stand for election to the Board at the company’s 2024 annual meeting of shareholders.
Greek shipping businessman George Economou who has taken recently via his affiliate GK Investor a 5.4% stake in Genco Shipping & Trading, a U.S. headquartered dry bulk shipowner, nominated the two candidates for Genco board.
It is another company since the summer to draw the Greek shipping magnate’s interest.
Now the company Genco through its statement says that it “thoroughly evaluated” both nominees and determined on the unanimous recommendation of its nominating and corporate governance committee, which is comprised of independent directors, that adding them to the board “would not be in the best interest of the company or its shareholders.”
“As part of its review process, our nominating and corporate governance committee interviewed both nominees and determined that they respectively are not additive to our board’s existing skills and expertise or lack sufficient experience in shipping and related industries,” reads Genco’s statement.
To remind few months ago George Economou highlighted the fact that both Randee and Robert have highly relevant backgrounds that would, in his view, be additive in the boardroom and would help address Genco’s lagging performance.
Randee Day, president and CEO of maritime consulting and advisory group Day & Partners, has 35 years of experience in corporate governance, restructuring, M&A and maritime finance, and is currently a director of International Seaways and Eagle Bulk Shipping.
Ms. Day, is a former interim CEO of DHT Maritime and managing director at the Seabury Group.
Previously, she served on the boards of Tidewater, an offshore platform vessel operator, as well as Guardian Navigation (formerly Valhalla Shipping), a shipping company specializing in the transshipment of dry cargo.
On the other hand Robert M. Pons, is a president and CEO of Spartan Advisors, a management consulting firm specializing in telecom and technology companies.
Pons has served on the boards of directors of 16 publicly traded companies, and has more than 40 years of hands-on operating experience as a CEO and in senior executive positions.
He is currently a director of Marpai and has previously served as Executive Chairman of Seachange International, as well as a director at CCUR Holdings, Alaska Communications and Inseego Corp., among others.
He was previously executive vice president of PTGi-ICS, a wholly owned subsidiary of HC2 Holdings, a publicly traded holding company operating subsidiaries in infrastructure, telecom, construction, energy technology, gaming and life science.
Previously, he was senior Vice President, Capital Markets, at TMNG Global, a global consulting firm to technology, media, communications and financial services companies. He also served in senior management roles at technology companies including Uphonia and FreedomPay.
Source: Genco and businesswire.
