United States based agricultural chemical and seed company Corteva Inc. (CTVA) has announced that its chief executive officer James Collins Jr will be retiring in December. This turn of events comes months after activist investor Starboard Value LP started pushing for his exit.
Back in January, Starboard nominated eight directors to the board of Corteva, they were mandated with initiating the ouster of Collins and take charge of the company.
Two months later, Starboard cooled the heat after Corteva agreed to appoint three independent directors backed by the activist investor.
Among matters which made Starboard push ouster of the CEO include Corteva’s financial performance highlighting that the cash flow margin was lagging behind its industry peers and the stock of the company should be costing more.
Collins will be stepping down after serving the company for 37 years. Corteva failed to disclose who will be taking over from the outgoing CEO. The company said that it has made an agreement with Collins to continue serving as the chief executive until they find his successor.
The company further said that it’s on track to deliver its financial commitments for the first half of the year.
