As he attempts to take over the board of directors at Oklahoma City-based SandRidge Energy, activist Carl Icahn has unveiled his proposed list of five directors.
He revealed their names this week in his proxy fight with the company. They include: Jonathan Frates, Nicholas Graziano, John J. “Jack” Lipinski, Bob G. Alexander and Randolph C. Read.
The nominations came after Icahn leveled accusations at the existing board members saying “they have a history of making poor decisions on behalf of stockholders” and have a “disregard for any semblance of accountability.”
He previously pressured SandRidge to back out of a massive buyout of the Denver-based Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. Icahn had until Monday to make his nominations and now a showdown looms as the company’s annual shareholders meeting approaches.
Of the five proposed by Icahn, Alexander was founder of Alexander Energy Corp. and once was a director at Chesapeake Energy. He later became a director at a Chesapeake spinoff, Seventy Seven Energy Inc. which later was acquired by Patterson-UTI of Houston. Alexander is also a director of CVR Energy Inc. which is an Icahn company that owns an oil refinery in Wynnewood.
Until last year, Lipinski was CEO at CVR Energy. He previously was a director at Chesapeake Energy until 2016 and has more than 40 years of experience in the petroleum industry.
Frates also sits on the board at CVR Energy and has been a Portfolio Company Associate at Icahn Enterprises L.P. since 2015. He began his career as an Investment Banking Analyst at Wachovia Securities LLC.
Read is a CPA who has been the Non-Executive Chairman of the New York REIT since 2015. He has been the CEO and President at Nevada Strategic Credit Investments, LLC since 2009.
SandRidge indicated it would have no comment about the nominations, only to say the company would review them.