The fast food giant said on Monday that McDonald’s Corp. had changed its board. The director who was replaced had been the target of activist investor Carl Icahn, who pushed to tighten the company’s standards on animal welfare.
Sheila Penrose was one of the two existing board members Icahn attempted to replace with his own candidates. Sheila Penrose will retire on September 1. All 12 of McDonald’s directors, including Penrose, were reelected by shareholders in May, ending Icahn’s campaign to change how pork suppliers treat pregnant pigs.
Days after losing that battle, Icahn gave up a similar campaign against the grocery store chain Kroger Co. over the practice of confining pregnant pigs to cages.
The board’s sustainability and corporate responsibility efforts were driven by Penrose, a 15-year McDonald’s director, the firm stated in a statement.
The Chicago-based corporation has also come under fire from investors for having too many directors who have held their positions for too long. For instance, the current chairman, Enrique Hernandez, has served on the board since 1996.
McDonald’s announced the election of three new board members on Monday: Anthony Capuano, the CEO of Marriott International Inc., Jennifer Taubert, the executive vice president of Johnson & Johnson, and Amy Weaver, the CFO of Salesforce.com Inc.
