Sunday, August 1, 2010

Crown Crafts' CEO

The Crown Crafts annual meeting is set for August 10.

Crown Crafts is a Louisiana based marketer of products for babies and toddlers: nursery decor, burb cloths, bibs, and so forth.

The dissidents, led by the Wynnefield Group, have claimed that the CEO of Crown Craft, Randall Chestnut, has a "history of long non-publicly explained absences from the Company."

Even when Chestnut had heart bypass surgery, the company says, he was only out of the office for two weeks. As for the present, "he is in great health and remains totally immersed in running the business."

Wynnefeld has also expressed concern that "there is no publicly disclosed succession plan to address the possibility of the CEO being unable to carry out his duties or obligations."

Crown Crafts has rebuked them for that is well. They do have a plan, and there is good reason it has not been publicly disclosed. Nobody does that.

"[In]line with long-established corporate governance best practices, no public company board, to our knowledge, discloses its carefully constructed succession plan outside the board room."

Blah and counter-blah. I'm just passing it along today folks. Go hit the beach, if you live anywhere near one. Or a good pool, otherwise.

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