In the midst of a showdown with famed activist investor Carl Icahn, Occidental Petroleum Corp. added former managing director of BlackRock Advisors LLC, Robert “Bob” M. Shearer, to its board on July 10.
Icahn, who has been critical of Occidental’s pending purchase of rival Anadarko Petroleum Corp., unleashed plans in late June to oust and replace four Occidental directors. In a regulatory filing, the billionaire investor called for a special shareholder meeting to win board seats in order to change the company’s charter to prevent a similar takeover in the future.
In response, Occidental urged shareholders to reject Icahn’s moves saying the proposals “are not in the best interests of Occidental or its stockholders” and on July 10 elected Shearer to its board of directors. The addition of Shearer will grow the number of directors on Occidental’s nine-member board to 10.
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