Bank of America shareholders voted to remove CEO Ken Lewis as chairman, according to a statement released by the company. A shareholder proposal to split the chairman and CEO positions passed with 50.34 percent of the vote.
Lewis will relinquish his role as chairman immediately but will remain president and CEO. “He is very much in the driver’s seat in terms of running the company day to day,” said spokesperson Robert Stickler to The Wall Street Journal. He added that “there is little evidence” to suggest Lewis’ job could be in jeopardy.
Without an unequivocal endorsement from shareholders, the vote could weaken Lewis’ grip as CEO, said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor and associate deal and Yale University’s School of Management to WSJ. He believe that Lewis has “lost the legitimacy to lead.”
Still, Lewis was re-elected to the board as a director with 67.3 percent of the vote as a good number of shareholders gave him their support. Others lamented that broker votes skewed the percentages as they typically side with management.
Lewis has told directors he intends to leave as CEO as soon as the crisis is over at the earliest and three years at the latest.
Lead director O. Temple Sloan was re-elected with 62.2 percent of the vote, despite a “vote no” campaign launched against him by shareholder groups.
Except for a shareholder proposal for an independent chairman, others for government employment disclosure, executive compensation advisory votes, special stockholder meetings, limits on executive compensation among others, were voted down.