NZX’s board has told shareholders it does not support the election of Tony Falkenstein as a director at its annual meeting later this month, saying it does not believe he would add sufficient additional skills, depth or experience to the current board.
Falkenstein, who founded the water cooler business Just Water International, has nominated himself to be put forward as a director of the stock exchange operator but the board does not support his election, NZX chairman James Miller said in a letter to shareholders.
The issue will be voted on at the NZX annual meeting on June 30Falkenstein’s water company is listed on the NZX’s small-cap NZAX market and he has publicly tussled with the NZX in the past, speaking out against the exchange’s new NXT market, which aimed to target high-growth companies, and saying the business had become too bureaucratic and did not do enough to encourage new listings.
In his letter released yesterday, NZX’s Mr Miller said the governance services firm Prospero Consulting had interviewed Falkenstein to formally assess him against a skills matrix and gap analysis used in recent NZX director appointments and this, together with a meeting he had, "determined that Mr Falkenstein would bring limited additional skills to the board".
"While it was recognised that Mr Falkenstein would bring to the board entrepreneurial skills and experience in the small listed company sector, his skills overlap with those of existing directors and are focused on an important but small part of NZX’s wider business," Mr Miller said in his letter.
"The board does not believe Mr Falkenstein would add sufficient additional skills, depth or experience to the current board," he said.
The NZX board considered the attributes of all potential director appointments against a skills matrix and other important elements of board composition, including committee succession, relevant executive and governance experience, regulatory requirements, geographic location and diversity as part of this process, Mr Miller said.
The process had identified Frank Aldridge and Richard Bodman, who were appointed directors to NZX in the past two months, to fill vacancies arising in 2017, he said. At the upcoming annual meeting, the board unanimously supports the elections of Mr Aldridge, Mr Bodman and the re-election of Patrick Strange, who joined the board in May 2015, he said.
NZX shares last traded at $1.09, having gained 14% over the past year.
