Chair of CenturyLink board announces retirement
Bill Owens, chairman of the CenturyLink board of directors, announced his retirement Wednesday at the annual shareholders meeting held Wednesday at CenturyLink headquarters in Monroe.
Glen Post, CEO and president of CenturyLink, said Owens could have retired two years ago but was asked to stay on. He touted Owen's long service in the navy, including his term as the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Owens has served as chairman of the board since 2009.
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Post discussed the pending merger with Level 3 Communications. He said he's confident the two companies will be able to merge successfully and showed maps of the network that will be created across the nation and internationally after the merger is complete.
He said the sale of data centers announced last year will generate about $1.75 billion that will be used to finance the Level 3 acquisition.
Shareholders approved the merger earlier this year, and Post said 16 of 28 states have OK'd the plan. The proposed closing date is September.
He called the change "transitional." Post told shareholders that the majority of CenturyLink's revenue will come from businesses, not individual consumer plans, in the future. Focusing on being the best service provider for other businesses, he said, will give the company a leg up.
On May 8 at the Sohn Investment Conference in New York, Keith Meister announced that his firm, Corvex Management, owns about 5.5 percent of CenturyLink. He said he'd like to see Level 3 CEO Jeff Storey become CEO of CenturyLink long term.
Post said Wednesday that the board assesses CEO succession regularly, he has liked working with Storey and the board is working to develop the option that will best serve customers.
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Shareholders vote
During the meeting, shareholders voted on six issues. All incumbent directors, other than Owens, were re-elected to the board. KPMG LLP was named the independent auditor.
Non-binding, advisory votes were taken on two matters. Shareholders approved the executive compensation programs that reward leadership positions for meeting targets. The majority of shareholders OK'd voting on executive compensation annually.
Two shareholder proposals were addressed. The Board of Trustees of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Pension Fund asked that the company require executives to obtain a certain percentage of shares acquired through compensation programs. The measure was voted down. The American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations proposed that the company should provide an annual report noting where all lobbying funds are spent. That measure also was voted down.
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