RE:Bob Oliver - 5th Director proposed by MeirMeirOrValeant2, this is good work you did looking into the nominees as you did, if people here don't appreciate they should. It's important to know what we're voting on. I'm going to sound a bit critical, but please take it as constructive criticism rather than an attack - everything on this board lately seems like an attack but I think you can respectfully disagree with people.
I'd just like to caution against the conclusions you have come to. It is important to look at the boards that these people have served on, but there is limited ability for them to influence the stock price. And they aren't the ones presenting their credentials, it was Meir, who would be the one hiding their failures.
I personally don't think it's a bad line up of nominees. I am wholeheartedly against Meir's plan and want this business over with, but that doesn't mean the nominees he put forth aren't qualified. I think it's possible and healthy to see the good with the bad. I honestly wouldn't mind if a few of these directors were voted onto the board, with the assumption that they aren't obnoxiously against the long term vision. If they just bring their experience to the board and are willing to advise and work WITH the current board, it would create a better board of directors.
Kevin Cameron - Yes he was on the boards of a few companies that failed or did poorly. I'll reiterate that as a board member he doesn't have too much control over this (if he were an executive I'd argue it's relevant). You say he has no relevant experience, but he is the CEO of a biotech company, is a lawyer (always handy to have on a board), and founded and was president of Glass Lewis so he has a lot of experience with corporate governance, M&A, etc. He would be a good director.
Elaine Campbell - You take that there are no mentions of her in the ARs as proof she isn't instrumental to AstraZeneca. Sure, but she was just CEO of a small subsidiary - I don't think it's unreasonable for the ARs not to mention her. And because of that, it's wrong to look at AstraZeneca's stock performance while she was CEO of a small subsidiary (you mention this briefly). Instead you should be looking at AstraZeneca's performance in Canada while she was in charge. That would ave been a fair criticism because revenue went down from $1.09 billion to $530 million in her time there. But sales were already on their way down before, so even if this metric is better to evaluate her, it's a poor one as patent expiries, company cuts, etc could have all contributed to sales declining. Just being the CEO of a Canadian pharma subsidiary is indicative of her qualifications, but if you really wanted to dig into her, you'd need to look much deeper at what affected AstraZeneca's Canadian sales.
Cristophe Jean - Again, you shouldn't take the bio as him being not forthright about IPSEN's performance. It was Meir (and his consultants) who put these bios together. And putting aside his time on boards (again, the stock of a company he is on the board of hardly tells us anything), his time as COO is important to note. Isn't the whole reason we're here is because we think you can build a good company without the stock price going up (the case with Knight). The stock couldn't have gone up 400% without whatever groundwork he laid as COO. Maybe his move from COO was a demotion and the company was better when he had less power, but I'm just trying to show the stock price doesn't mean everything you imply.
Michael Cloutier - He was on the board of Paladin, to me that's more important than his time anywhere else. Assuming he didn't leave unceremoniously (looks like he left to be an exec at a competitor) it shows he knows the plan Goodman is working on can work, and can work well with Goodman. That, plus he was CEO of AstraZeneca Canada during a period of extreme growth (again you'd have to look at the other factors that affected growth) which is a plus in my book. It also looks like he moved on from CEO for a promotion which is a good sign.
Bob Oliver - I don't have much to say here, other than again I don't think stock performance is relevant while he is just CEO of an international subsidiary. I also won't read Japanese, but maybe Otsuka America has outperformed the rest of the company? And it is probably too small to really affect the stock performance of the ADR.
I'll reiterate, don't take this as an attack. I appreciate the work you did to look at these nominees, and I did learn stuff from it. But I think a few of the things you looked at and judged upon aren't important and doesn't accurately show their competence. That and you are wrongly attributing half truths to the nominees, instead of Meir- the nominees definitely didn't write these, and it is Meir who is trying to show off their records so he wouldn't include experience with those lesser companies.
I for one would love to have Kevin Cameron, Elaine Campbell (maybe), and Michael Cloutier, on the board. As long as they aren't going to just fight the long term plan, their experience and input could only help. My fear is their minds have been poisoned by Meir, and they would just try to be loyal to the guy that nominated them. If they can be impartial, which includes pushing bakc against Goodman when necessary, they would be a plus.