U.S. car rental business Hertz Global Holdings Inc stated this week that it would change its CEO and decrease its board size in January, moves backed by its most significant investor Carl Icahn.
Hertz stated CEO John Tague would retire on January 2, a little more than 2 years after he got the position with support from Icahn, and will be replaced by Kathryn Marinello, who sits on the boards of AB Volvo and General Motors.
“Kathy has a history as a tested CEO and I think she is the ideal individual to lead Hertz as we move on,” Icahn, who has a 35.3 percent stake in Hertz, stated in a declaration provided by the company.
Company likewise stated its 3 longest serving directors, Linda Fayne Levinson, Carl Berquist and Michael Durham, are going to leave the board, effective January 2. The company did not state why the trio had chosen to step down.
That would leave car rental company with 7 directors, consisting of 3 who were chosen by Icahn in September 2014 in return for not running a proxy contest. He had an approximately 9 percent stake in Hertz at the time and has been improving his holding from then.
The billionaire financier revealed he had doubled his stake in Hertz on November 8, the exact same day the stock plunged almost 23 percent after Hertz cut its full-year earnings projection following a document in the worth of a few of its vehicles.
The car rental company, dealing with stiff competitors such as Uber, has been slowly minimizing the size of its huge fleet, which it runs under brand like Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty. It has rental arrangements with Uber and Lyft.
Hertz was founded in 1918, and today it has international operations in over 150 countries. It is the largest U.S. car rental company by sales.
