General Electric will ask shareholders this year to nominate only 10 directors to the company’s board, as GE’s two longest tenured directors will be retiring, according to a filing submitted Friday.
Jim Mulva, the former chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips, and Geoff Beattie, the former CEO of the Woodbridge Company, will retire from GE’s board at the company’s annual meeting on May 8.
Mulva and Beattie have served on the GE board since 2008 and 2009, respectively.
Seven of the 10 GE directors being nominated this May are new to GE in the past two years. In the same time, 15 directors have retired from GE’s board. CEO Larry Culp is working to implement a turnaround plan, after the company has freed up billions of dollars in cash through asset sales and mergers.
While GE has yet to nominate replacements for Mulva and Beattie, the company is still targeting a board size of 12.
Additionally, GE is “asking shareowners to approve an amendment to our Certificate of Incorporation that would lower the minimum required number of directors on the Board from ten to seven,” the filing said. This is ensures “that the company remains in compliance with its Certificate of Incorporation, particularly during times of transition.”
