Exelixis Advances Board Refreshment Plan

 Exelixis, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXEL) (the "Company") today announced that Carl Feldbaum, Esq. and Vincent Marchesi, M.D., Ph.D., two long-standing and valued members of the Board of Directors, will not stand for re-election at the Company’s 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the "Annual Meeting"). As part of its ongoing refreshment program, the Board is recommending Tomas Heyman, current Chief Executive Officer of Interlaken Therapeutics and former President of Johnson & Johnson’s Corporate Venture Capital Group, and Robert Oliver, former President and Chief Executive Officer of Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, for election as independent directors at the Company’s Annual Meeting to fill Mr. Feldbaum’s and Dr. Marchesi’s seats.

As previously disclosed, Messrs. Heyman and Oliver were originally nominated by Farallon Capital Management, L.L.C. ("Farallon"). As part of the Company’s efforts to reach an agreement with Farallon to avoid a proxy contest, in the third week of March numerous members of the Exelixis Board met individually with both candidates to assess their qualifications to serve as members of the Board. The Board subsequently agreed to appoint both Messrs. Heyman and Oliver to the Board as part of a proposed settlement agreement with Farallon. However, Farallon was unwilling to sign an agreement and demanded a highly unusual breadth and depth of access to company confidential and proprietary information as a non-negotiable part of any settlement, including unprecedented access to Exelixis’ pipeline, people and clinical trial data. While the Exelixis Board could not concede to Farallon’s information and access demands, the Board determined at the time of the interviews that Messrs. Heyman and Oliver were excellent candidates for the Board, and the failure of settlement negotiations with Farallon does not in any way affect that view.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exelixis-advances-board-refreshment-plan-201100796.html