Atherton, CA – March 15: Anne Wojcicki appears at The Wall Street Journal. The Magazine Style & Technology Dinner took place on March 15, 2023 in Atherton, California. (Photo by Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for WSJ.)
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23 and me Company board appoints three new independent directors declare On Tuesday, seven former directors stepped down a month after sudden resignation.
The new board members are Andre Fernandez, the former CFO of WeWork; Jim Frankola, the former CFO of enterprise cloud company Cloudera; and Mark Jensen, a technology consultant with Deloitte, according to a press release and former managing partner. The only other board member is 23andMe co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki.
Fernandez, Francola and Jensen will all serve on the board’s audit committee and compensation committee, the company said. Jensen will serve as lead independent director and chairman of the compensation committee, and Fernandez will serve as chairman of the audit committee.
“I am pleased to welcome these three experienced directors to the 23andMe Board of Directors and look forward to working with them,” Wojcicki said in the release.
23andMe’s former independent directors announced their resignation in a letter to Wojcicki in September, writing that they disagreed with her views on the “strategic direction of the company.”
The genetic testing company, once valued at $6 billion, has been in trouble since going public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in 2021. Shares were hovering below $1 until 23andMe announced a 20-for-1 deal reverse stock split Earlier this month, the company issued Class A and Class B common stock.
The company’s stock was trading around $5 on Tuesday morning.
To help 23andMe explore potential paths forward, former independent directors on the company’s board formed a special committee in late March. Wojcicki submitted a proposal Take the company private July, but that was rejected Approved by the special committee in part because it lacked committed financing and did not offer a premium above the then closing price of 40 cents a share.
Directors gave Wojcicki an opportunity to submit a more appropriate revised proposal, but they did not receive one, according to the September letter.
“We believe it is in the best interests of the company’s shareholders that we resign from the board rather than perpetuate distracting differences with you regarding the direction of the company,” they wrote.
In the weeks since board members left, Wojcicki has repeatedly said she remains on firm Take the company private.
