Activist Investing Today: UofW’s Nili Targets ‘Succession CEOs’ With Study

Chief executives who also serve as board chairs are leaving CEO roles but maintaining chairman positions at a large number of U.S. corporations, a situation that is jeopardizing boards’ independence and effectiveness.That’s the view of Yaron Nili, assistant professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an expert in governance, hedge funds, private equity and activist investors. Nili spoke to The Deal's Activist Investing Today podcast about a new study he just issued that identifies many cases where the company installs a CEO who the former chief executive has been cultivating for the role and whom he will continue to oversee as chairman. “If you have the CEO and ex-CEO both serving, and working in cahoots, so to speak, the power structure is a problem and whether the rest of the directors can resist the chairman and CEO, who are on the same wave length, is a question,” Nili said. According to Nili, there were 217 companies in the S&P 1500 in 2016 that had “successor” CEOs, where the chief executive has stepped down from their executive role but maintained the chairman role.