Callouts & quotes from 10,384+ activist slides

"I took a job as an auditor with T.J. Maxx right out of school and stayed in that role with the company for two years. I was a hard worker, always the first to arrive and the last to leave and the chief marketing officer of the company asked if I would switch over to the marketing side of the company. He really took me under his wing and taught me that side of the business. I was with T..J. Maxx for a total of 10 years, working my way up the company to run the marketing side of the business. — Dick Sullivan Interview"

""Today's adoption by the SEC of a universal proxy rule represents a significant milestone in efforts by institutional investors and others who champion shareholder rights to ensure corporate elections are fair, transparent, and efficient," said ISS Governance Solutions Business Head, Lorraine Kelly. — Institutional Shareholder Services, November 2021. "In Glass Lewis' view, implementing universal proxy would both enhance shareholder rights and simplify the mechanics of proxy voting..." — Glass Lewis, September 2019."

"There have been some OK acquisitions, but very little consistency from management, and the execution has been poor. But there has been pressure to continue to pursue M&A to grow the company for shareholders, and to increase comp. There was also major pressure to hit quarterly numbers – and I felt it. We originally had longer-term financial planning – around three to five years. That was eventually reduced to fiscal year targets, and now to monthly targets under [new CEO John] Groetelaars. — Former Employee, Hill-Rom"

"Greg Hessler, Bank of America: “Can you highlight just sort of what, specifically, you're seeing in your bond or your debt covenants that would require you to make whole the capital structure?” Brad Richmond: “We think it's fairly clear in there that to the degree that we would need to pay off those bonds, there are certain provisions that those costs that we would have to incur. So we're fairly certain that those are there, and those are obligations that we would need to fulfill.” — Q3 Earnings Call, March 21, 2013"

"“We gotta get Fannie and Freddie out of government ownership. It makes no sense that these are owned by the government and have been controlled by the government for as long as they have. In many cases this displaces private lending in the mortgage markets and we need these entities that will be safe. So let me just be clear we’ll make sure that when they’re restructured they’re absolutely safe and they don’t get taken over again but we gotta get them out of government control.” — US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin"

"“You hit the nail on the head. That’s part of the problem. Nevro is so locked in that their leads have to be at one spot. If there’s any variation they get lost. Low frequency doesn’t necessarily work at just that T9/10 junction. A lot of it works at T8/9. You’re bound by their restrictions. So if you use high frequency first and the leads have to be over the T9/10junction, you’re screwed if that patient does better with low frequency because that’s not where the leads are implanted.” — KOL and high volume implanter"

""Something that we saw over the course of time is the consolidation in the label converter base. So we saw a number of private equity firms buying up and consolidating label converter businesses, which puts more of the bargaining power in their hands." — Former Avery Employee with 20+ Years of Experience. "A significant consolidation of our customer base could negatively impact our business... increased pricing pressures from our customers could have a material adverse effect on our business." — 2019 Annual Report."

""Research into automated insulin delivery - both ours and academic - has demonstrated that any sensor with a MARD below 10 will be suitable for use in closed loop systems, which means that all four commercially available sensors (Senseonics, Medtronic, Dexcom, Abbott) operate in an acceptable range for closed loop, effectively rendering the conversation about MARD moot.... Any concerns about bias in any particular sensor can be accounted for in software...." — Current Employee, Diabetes-Related Medical Tech Company"

""Recognizing the advantages of today's digital technologies, we implemented Zebra's leading-edge software and hardware solutions to streamline our operations and better support our employees and customers," said Tim Bailey, Senior Manager, Asset Protection Solutions, Walgreens Boots Alliance. "The integration of Zebra's solutions has yielded positive outcomes, empowering our business with tools to enhance associate engagement, improve inventory accuracy, and elevate the customer experience." — Tim Bailey, Walgreens"

"The Commission's Order finds that, on November 5, 2001, the company's Chief Executive Officer disclosed material, nonpublic information to the attendees of an invitation-only technology conference in California. At the conference, the company's CEO made positive comments about the company's business that were based on material, nonpublic information and that contrasted with negative statements that he had made about the company's business in a public conference call three weeks earlier. — SEC v. Siebel Systems, Inc"

""With this acquisition, Ströer is going international with the expansion of its business model to include marketing of online advertising, which has already been launched in Germany. This will make Ströer a full service provider in the core markets of Turkey and Poland as well. Ströer will hence be a relevant player on the market from the outset. In Turkey, Ströer is at the forefront in terms of outdoor advertising. With Ballroom Group, the Group will rank first place among online marketers." — Ströer press release"

""The contribution margin was something in the 40-cent range for the cases you use TransMedics on." — Prominent surgeon, Director of leading academic transplant center; "Waleed and his people got so angry at the Duke guy for bringing it up. I know for a fact that the Duke guys were on target to do a huge percentage of their liver transplants using TransMedics in a given year but they dropped their volume by 20% because they were taking such a bath." — Prominent surgeon, Director of leading academic transplant center"

"Our cash equivalents are primarily comprised of investments in several large institutional money market accounts, with original maturity of three months or less. Outstanding payments are included within "Cash and cash equivalents" and "Accounts payable and accrued liabilities" correspondingly on the condensed consolidated balance sheets. At October 2, 2020 and January 3, 2020, $166 million and $169 million, respectively, of outstanding payments were included within "Cash and cash equivalents." — Leidos Q3 2020 10-Q"

"“...interference with potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium – all these...keep the heart functioning normally...that’s why I said I wanted to hold off [on Vykat]...and see what happens”; “low magnesium can cause seizures or muscle spasms or heart irregularity...I can see that could be a problem...when you’re on a diuretic...you’re losing your potassium... yes. I’m concerned about the edema...heart arrhythmia, muscle spasms, and seizures.” — Trial investigator and physician; one of the leading KOL’s in the PWS field"

"“diazoxide I use regularly...is it worth the difference...it’s probably just the diazoxide, where the extended release probably makes no difference at all...half to $1 million is a bit excessive for something you could do for a year, for $1,000 at most...I’m not convinced it’s the actual choline, the extended release that makes a big difference”; “absolutely outrageous...my concern is certainly, is this cost-effective...very expensive for a drug that isn’t that novel...it’s hard to justify.” — Trial investigator #7"

"“...interference with potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium – all these...keep the heart functioning normally...that’s why I said I wanted to hold off [on Vykat]...and see what happens”; “low magnesium can cause seizures or muscle spasms or heart irregularity...I can see that could be a problem...when you’re on a diuretic...you’re losing your potassium... yes. I’m concerned about the edema...heart arrhythmia, muscle spasms, and seizures.” — Trial investigator and physician; one of the leading KOL’s in the PWS field"

"“the participants are required to obtain the qualification for participation by paying fees, purchasing commodities or services or any other means, the participants are classified into different levels according to a certain order, the calculation of remunerations or kickbacks to participants is directly or indirectly dependent on the number of persons recruited, and the participants are induced to continue or coerced into continuing recruiting others to participate.” — Article 224(A) of the Criminal Law of the PRC"

"“I don't know how many HHG machines they are using because they're doing a combination of three things: they have the KLA machines, they have Lasertec's non-EUV machines. In fact, some of the inspections that I was told were done with EUV machines from Lasertec were actually done with 193nm machines from Lasertec. So, they have KLA machines, they have Lasertec machines, both with 193. And they have HHG machine, and then they have Lasertec EUV machine .” — Leading EUV lithography expert close to Lasertec's customers"

""Our go-to-market improvements enabled us to deliver efficient and consistent revenue growth. And we generated a 13% year-over-year improvement in sales force productivity, primarily driven by our enterprise sales force. We plan to grow our quota-carrying sales force in the low teens in FY '22 focusing on our higher-performing geographies and segments. We will also continue investing in our customer success organization to help our customers adopt higher-value use cases." — CFO Dylan Smith, Q4 FY2021 Earnings Call"

"On July 31, 2012, the Group acquired 80% equity interest in Tianjin Libao Coal Trading Company (“Tianjin Libao”), a company incorporated in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China (“the PRC”) at a total consideration of RMB 1,300,000 (equivalent to HK$1,579,858). Tianjin Libao is principally engaged in trading of coals in PRC. The acquired business contributed revenue and net loss of HK$112,080,000 and HK$61,901,000 respectively to the Group for the period form 31 July 2012 to 31 December 2012. — Superb Summit 2012 AR"

"SONAR was designed on the basis of the observation that risk of progressive kidney disease is correlated to albuminuria... There are caveats to the usefulness of this design. Most importantly, the biologic response is most likely to predict a clinical treatment response if the biologic response lies on the causal pathway. History tells us that our assumptions that associations between biologic responses and clinical response, no matter how consistent and strong, are causal, are frequently incorrect. — JASN Journal"

"As of December 31, 2022, we own a 36 % interest in Sairopa. We determined that we have the ability to exercise significant influence over Sairopa but do not have a controlling interest. Therefore, the investment in Sairopa was accounted for using the equity method. Judgment regarding the level of influence over each equity method investment includes considering key factors such as ownership interest, representation on the board of directors, and participation in policy-making decisions. — Chinook 2022 10-K pg. 113"

"“to put it mildly, a lot of different things are going to happen clinically to that organ...if you have blood doing through very, very small tubing...that is not healthy...these plastic tubes...red blood cells lyse and cause hemolysis...enzymes will leak out of the liver...all of these markers are essentially early markers of liver failure...increasing at a very high rate if the liver is on for an extend period”; “infection risk increases the longer this thing is not transplanted....” — Medical director at OrganOx"

""On May 4, 2020, we completed the divestiture of the Security & Detection Systems and MacDonald Humfrey Automation solutions business ("airport security and automation business") to Leidos, Inc. for $ 1 billion (net cash proceeds of $ 950 million after selling costs and estimated purchase price adjustments), subject to final customary purchase price adjustments as set forth in the definitive sale agreement, and recognized a pre-tax loss of $26 million during the quarter ended July 3, 2020." — L3Harris Q1 2020 10-Q"

"“Lasertec should continue to enjoy monopoly profits as long as it does not lose its technology lead over KLA”; “will maintain its monopoly because EUV is exceedingly difficult”; and has “a dominant share in the EUV mask/blank inspection market.” — UBS initiation report. “...in Japan Lasertec has a similar story...we’re a monopoly blah-blah...they’re kind of nuts...people tend to view them as...the Japanese version of ASML...so it’s got everything.” — Longtime semiconductor consultant recently working for Lasertec."

"Each amortizing note will have an initial principal amount of US$8.5143, will bear interest at the rate of 4.00% per annum and will have a final installment payment date of March 15, 2023. Upon any settlement on the mandatory settlement date, we will deliver not more than 2.6316 subordinate voting shares and not less than 2.1930 subordinate voting shares per purchase contract, subject to adjustment, based upon the applicable settlement rate and applicable market value of our subordinate voting shares — Prospectus"

""They've done a single-layer pouch cell. It's relatively straightforward to make sure the quality of that small piece in a particular configuration isn't a problem in that small, non-commercially relevant system." — Former R&D employee; "Dendrites are a real problem...it has to be solved 100%. And therefore, the ceramic separator needs to be produced flawlessly. They need to produce hundreds of square meters per vehicle of flawless 5-micron thick separator material. That's a Herculean task." — Former R&D employee"

"“Based on our confidence in ozanimod’s potential, we are raising our 2020 revenue targets to more than $21 billion…it’s an incredibly exciting time for Celgene as we continue to invest in our future and accelerate growth potential through 2020 and beyond.” — Bob Hugin, Chairman & CEO, July 2015; “We believe that ozanimod has the potential to generate peak sales in the range of $4 billion to $6 billion annually in just the initial indications.” — Scott Smith, President – Global Inflammation & Immunology, July 2015"

""the review process is already ongoing, if your proposal requires urgent consideration, we kindly ask that you promptly submit specific candidates the Nomination Committee." — Kao (November 22). "We feel it's important for us to make the announcement... there's nobody else from our end that we'd recommend as candidates that's going through any of the procedures." — Nomination Committee (December 5). "decision was made before Oasis Management proposed any director candidates" — Kao press release dated December 12."

""If the primary beneficiary of a variable interest entity (VIE) and the VIE are under common control, the primary beneficiary shall initially measure the assets, liabilities, and noncontrolling interests of the VIE at amounts at which they are carried in the accounts of the reporting entity that controls the VIE (or would be carried if the reporting entity issued financial statements prepared in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles [GAAP])." — Deloitte US Roadmap to Common Control Transactions"

"“And so we make investments based on the company themselves and how it fits with the knowledge that we want to continue to earn. Whether we do business, that's a separate decision. That's at armed length, whether we have a commercial relationship depending on the products and services that that company does. And so some of our Bunge Ventures portfolio companies, we do business because it makes sense, and some are pure investments. We do a little bit of business with Benson Hill.” — CEO On Bunge Ventures, Oct 2021"

"GFL will play with its numbers. If one division is outperforming to forecasts, they'll transfer some of those dollars to a division that isn't performing so well to bolster those numbers. An example would be between hauling and transfer stations. They'll allocate the repair/fuel/labor to truck repair and transfer, over to hauling to bolster either P&L to basically suit what the market is looking for. Should they do it, no, do they do it, yes. But that's not unique to GFL; GFL is aggressive. — Former GFL Employee"

""...we were all brought up [to view] resective procedures [as a] last resort...it's not enough to have a really great product if you have to actually change the way surgeons think about managing this disease, which is really challenging...guys have to be treated earlier...the most powerful indicator [of success] is less severe symptoms going in...the earlier you're intervening, the more [patients] tend to skew towards less invasive procedures..." — Spruce Point Interview with Private Practice Urologist, Dec 2024"

"We believe $1 of revenue from small cells is as valuable as $1 of revenue from the tower business. It has all the same characteristics, long-term committed contract, annual escalation, the same components of we don’t have the incremental cost as we add additional tenants, high returns ultimately as the asset is leased up...So over time, we need to prove out that small cells has the same characteristics and sustains itself in the same way that towers has for the last couple of decades. — CEO Jay Brown, April 2017"

"“we may not realize the anticipated synergies” — Xerox 2017 10-K. “we may be unable to eliminate duplicative costs” — Xerox 2017 10-K. “[c]ombining the business of Xerox and Fuji Xerox may be more difficult, costly or time-consuming than expected” — Xerox 2017 10-K. “we may incur substantial expenses in connection with the integration of our business and Fuji Xerox's business” — Xerox 2017 10-K. “the integration of Xerox and Fuji Xerox following the Closing will present significant challenges” — Xerox 2017 10-K."

""The one issue that people bring up is the fact that the fidelities on the machine that's on Braket are not great or not exceptional; I mean, they could be better. It was one of these companies that we work with, it's a finance company, but I don't feel comfortable sharing their name. Very large company. They said the qubit fidelity was not on par, was essentially not what they expected, and I think they were referring to the fact that it is below the Honeywell machine." — Executive of a key IonQ partner, QCWare"

"“basically the same as Agilent’s technology,” stated that DNA synthesis on the chip is extremely expensive given costly reagents and enzymes and that errors “go up geometrically” as sequences get longer: “the detection of those errors gets more costly and more expensive.” — Longtime oligonucleotide manufacturing expert and executive; ex-Agilent. “the enzymes are not cheap, and the sequencing reagents are not cheap, and it takes a lot of time.” — Ex-employee in senior product management and sales leadership roles"

"“Had it been free from P&G's lumbering management structure, Gillette might have been more aggressive about fighting its new rivals, says Ali Dibadj, a consumer products analyst at the research and brokerage firm Bernstein. ‘Frankly, Gillette should have taken out Dollar Shave [Club] in year one,’ Dibadj says. To hear analysts tell it, Gillette's response to Dollar Shave Club and its low-cost peers — Harry's, Bevel, ShaveMob, and a litany of others — was a dismissive institutional smirk.” — Ali Dibadj, Bernstein"

""We have developed a culture of continuous improvement in Refining and are targeting $5.50 per barrel adjusted controllable cost, excluding turnarounds, over the next two years." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, Q4 2024 Earnings Call; "We continue to lower our costs, and we talked about how sustainable those cost improvements are. And that's what gives us the confidence that we will that see Refining able to contribute to that $14 billion of mid-cycle EBITDA." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, Q2 2024 Earnings Call"

""We have developed a culture of continuous improvement in Refining and are targeting $5.50 per barrel adjusted controllable cost, excluding turnarounds, over the next two years." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, Q4 2024 Earnings Call; "We continue to lower our costs, and we talked about how sustainable those cost improvements are. And that's what gives us the confidence that we will that see Refining able to contribute to that $14 billion of mid-cycle EBITDA." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, Q2 2024 Earnings Call"

"February 9th, 2022: We're in a really great place with having the manufacturing being built out in Salt Lake City at the Teal factory...The production line that we're building, by the way, can do up to 2,000 drones a month. We're not there yet...but that production line will be able to do 2,000 a month...we've doubled the size of the production facility so that once we get to the max that we can on this existing production line, we're actually going to build another one in the same facility. — Red Cat Management"

"a back to the drawing board moment — Neurology Professor/Author of SLEEP editorial. very seductive tale in which the protagonist is brain histamine. — Neurology Professor/Author of SLEEP editorial. additional methodological concerns — Neurology Professor/Author of SLEEP editorial. is not at all surprising — Neurology Professor/Author of SLEEP editorial. this should temper concluding that...histamine...is the principal arbiter of sleepiness in primary hypersomnias. — Neurology Professor/Author of SLEEP editorial."

"“The ‘strategic partnership,’ however, is a sham designed to lock up a significant portion of the vote in favor of the Board’s recommended slate of directors. Specifically, simultaneous with the announcement of the Investment Agreement, the Board announced plans to use the proceeds to launch a ‘Dutch Auction’ self-tender to purchase $500 million of common stock in the open market, indicating the Company had no operational need to raise capital.” — Building Trades Pension Fund of Western Pennsylvania (Complaint)"

""[O]ur performance was strengthened by our guiding principle to always attack waste... This included an effort to begin rationalizing our facilities and organizational assignments to drive unnecessary expense out of the business and to improve our customer intimacy by delayering the organization. We remain focused on executing our global pipeline of opportunities to improve our efficiency and reduce our waste. This will remain a major focus in fiscal year '08 and beyond." — Tony Aquila, CEO, President, Chairman"

""[Advisory positions] are not held accountable to shareholders as they do not serve on the board. Still, they can apply pressure on the board and are often referred to as 'ghosts in the boardroom' or 'corporate backseat drivers'. In cases where the former CEO remains as a senior adviser, they may exercise unreasonable influential power over incumbent management members, which could be detrimental to the board's functioning and dynamic." — L&G (2024 - Japan corporate governance and responsible investment policy)"

"However, the key challenge facing titanium alloy recycling is the removal of oxygen due to the strong affinity between titanium and oxygen. Therefore, the critical aspect in recycling titanium alloy scrap is the effective removal of oxygen. The current titanium alloy scrap recycling methods, which are effective to varying degrees, have notable limitations. — Environmentally Friendly and Simple Recycling of Titanium Alloy Scrap via Deoxygenation with Hybrid Hydrogen Plasma Arc, Advanced Science, January 21, 2025"

"One company, NCR Corporation, made a distinct effort to ensure its declassification proposal surpassed the 80 percent of outstanding shares supermajority vote requirement. ... NCR took the extraordinary step to adjourn its meeting twice in order to solicit additional votes for the declassification proposal. When the annual meeting convened for a third time, the declassification proposal had received the requisite votes of outstanding shares for passage at 80.1 percent. — ISS Post Season Review, October 12, 2016"

""This is an unprecedented combination of world-class brands. It reinforces Time Inc.’s commitment to the Internet and our effort to deliver content in multiple ways," — Ms. Moore. "It’s going to be a challenge targeting four different audiences on one page," — David Smith, chief executive of Mediasmith Inc. "We’re serving one master, and that master is the user, who is looking for a single destination with full breadth that offers an array of choices, so he doesn’t have to bounce around" — Publishing executive."

""In terms of margins, the accounting change really accounts for the shift that you're seeing. So we have not revised up or revised down our expectations" — DuPont Management. "...Safety and Protection margin [targets] that you show are 21% to 23% which is what they were 18 months ago. But you now exclude your pension cost...[which was] more than 500 basis points." — Jeff Zeakauskas, JP Morgan. "...You're right, Jeff. The margin is lower between 400 and 500 basis points from that standpoint" — DuPont Management."

""The basic message is clear--long-term interest rates are expected to rise gradually over the next few years... The forecasts in chart 4 imply a total increase of between 200 and 300 basis points in long-term yields between now and 2017." — Ben Bernanke; "I'm certainly comfortable in this rate environment being floating...I'm not sure that you are going to see much growth in interest rates. A ten-year treasury is at 1.64." — HMA CFO; "The bond market is a bit of a disaster right now," — Prudential Fixed Income."

"I think the DIY products have gotten better. We tried to sit and talk about the value of everything working together and how amazing that is, but the disparate apps is not that challenging of a consumer experience. I have to think that that's impacting our dealer's business. By the way, I still want to buy amazing speakers, and I really want beautiful lights, and I want automated shades, but I can get that from my dealer, and I don't have to have a Control4 system to manage it. — Former SVP of Marketing, SnapAV"

"“Prestige is not what you think of a pharma company. The company does not actually create and research new products - it is a buyout firm that buys drug brands that are already past patent life and are competing with generics. The best hope is that customers are ignorant and continue paying premiums. Each of the company's products will eventually reach end of life. There is no growth beyond short term marketing gimmicks. Products and brands get bought to come here to die.” — Current employee (November 18, 2019)"

"“The percentage of product of any multi-level marketing company consumed by its distributors is substantial. This is not surprising since consumers who are enthusiastic about the products become distributors in order to purchase at a discount and possibly to share and sell the products to others. In addition, in order to minimize the risk of product being accumulated by distributors, the company has policies in place such as the 70% Rule, the Ten Customer Rule and the Buy Back policy.” — Herbalife 8-K (5-2-12)"

"“In terms of margins, the accounting change really accounts for the shift that you're seeing. So we have not revised up or revised down our expectations” — DuPont Management. “...Safety and Protection margin [targets] that you show are 21% to 23% which is what they were 18 months ago. But you now exclude your pension cost...[which was] more than 500 basis points.” — Jeff Zekauskas, JP Morgan. “...You're right, Jeff. The margin is lower between 400 and 500 basis points from that standpoint” — DuPont Management."

"“One trend I'm seeing is that lawncare companies are offering exterior, perimeter pest control. That's easy for them to do, perimeter spray. That's one of the biggest trends I'm seeing. There are even pool service companies offering pest control, for example ABC Pest Control in Texas, does lawncare, pest, and pool. Attic installation is a big one too. It adds pest control and energy value. Rollins does that. Crawl space encapsulation also is a service that goes really well with pest control.” — Industry Expert"

"“For longer distance of marginal grafts, we use other cooler systems that are really coming around, which we’ve found have less re-perfusion injuries...post-transplant.”; “for both DBD and DCD, we’ve been trying to prioritize using these coolers that keep the heart closer to 8-10 degrees or so”; “even for long distance using 8 or 10-degree coolers is the preference...we’ve traveled as far as Alaska to procure hearts and haven’t had any issue.” — Transplant cardiologist at one of the top centers in the US/world"

"“Consistent with the observation of hyperglycemia as an adverse event, fasting glucose rose through Week 26 (Change from baseline mean±SD 0.35±0.81 mmol/L) and had returned nearly to baseline by 65 weeks of treatment (Baseline mean±SD 4.997±0.635 mmol/L; 65 weeks 5.126±0.692 mmol/L). HbA1c followed a similar pattern, being elevated at 26 Weeks (Change from Baseline mean±SD 0.19±0.50%) and returned nearly to baseline by 65 Weeks (Baseline mean±SD 5.547%±0.4069%; 65 weeks 5.572% ±0.5103%).” — Miller et al (2024)"

"I see if we have change, we have something -- a killer product, which what we're bringing this year. I think we released already. And so that's our growth strategy. And other things worth to mention about, since we're now focused on the mega market and also we're now focusing -- we're now doing things chasing the revenue next 12 months. We have really a long consistency, see where our values, where things ought to be. And that's where we've put our resources into. — CEO Hsing, William Blair June and July 2016"

"From a vertical perspective, we saw advertising spend in Q4 increased year-over-year in industries such as automotive, entertainment, food, retail, sports and political, while verticals such as CPG, personal and consumer finance, fashion, electronics and other sectors tide heavily to consumer discretionary spending, so advertising spend decline year-over-year during Q4. Importantly, despite the macro backdrop continuing to impact the overall advertising demand environment, — Tremor Year End Call March 7, 2023"

""[Bob] Iger had personally selected every member of the board, which is surprisingly lacking in media and entertainment experience. Iger is personally close with several of them, including Nike Executive Chairman Mark Parker and General Motors CEO Mary Barra [who is on Disney's Compensation Committee]. In addition, the wife of another director, Michael Froman, then vice chairman of Mastercard and now president of the Council on Foreign Relations, had been housemates with Iger's wife..." — CNBC, September 2023"