A Toshiba Corp. external board member has said the company’s plan to appoint two directors representing activist investors lacks fairness and balance, opposing their election in a shareholder vote this month.
Mariko Watahiki, a former judge who became a Toshiba board member last year, spoke out against the proposed election of two director candidates from Elliott Management Corp. and Farallon Capital Management, saying that if they were appointed, activists would take up too much of the board. Toshiba announced a slate of 13 proposed directors last month ahead of its shareholder meeting scheduled for June 28.
"Toshiba has many types of shareholders, such as hedge funds, institutional investors and individual investors, who would seek profits from their investment in different ways,” Watahiki said in an interview with Bloomberg News. "If we take people from just one specific group, it’s impossible to avoid conflicts of interest.”