Last month, the CME Group (CME) announced its Board of Director nominees. From the announcement, it included plans to cut the number of board members by 17 percent. However, this still has CME sitting with one of the largest number of board members for a publicly traded company, noted Crain’s at the time.?
Fast forward a few weeks and now, CME is receiving opposition by five former board members regarding the cuts of whittling the board to 21 members from 24, reported the Financial Times. This will come?from slashing three?seats nominated by class B shareholders (exchange members).?
This week, one former board member and independent trader,?Jeff Carter, publicly expressed his discontent in a Futures Magazine?op-ed. It is his belief that CME should make cuts from non-member directors not the class B shareholders. In his support, four former board members signed their names.
Carter wrote of CME,??They?re under pressure to cut their board size and they should. [But] instead of doing what executives do and making hard decisions, they?re trying to change the game.?
He added that this change and the recent fee increases, have been built “on a pattern of ‘disdain for the industry’.”
A CME spokewoman, Laurie Bischel, said to the Financial Times that the proposal, ?corresponds to efforts to reduce our board size? and that??Members are an important part of our company and marketplace.We will continue to have class B directors and other members on our board.?