Outgoing chairman fires parting shot at Vector opponents
Rolled directors David Bartholomew and Sibylle Krieger were collateral damage as Entrust waged a personal vendetta against him, outgoing Vector chairman Michael Stiassny told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting yesterday.
Saying he felt freer to speak his mind given it was his final meeting as chairman, Stiassny took pot shots at boardroom rivals aligned to Entrust, critics of Vector’s relationship with Israeli defence company mPrest and the Commerce Commission.
Bartholomew and Krieger resigned from the board on Friday under pressure from Entrust, the consumer trust that owns 75 per cent of Vector.
At the AGM, two Entrust-aligned candidates were elected to the board, each by a wide margin: Entrust trustee and former Hirepool chief executive Michael Buczkowski (a new director) and Dame Alison Patterson (who was re-elected).
Stiassny said Bartholomew and
Krieger were appointed to the board in February “following an exhaustive recruitment process in which all directors took part and in which Vector’s main shareholder [Entrust] participated. “Their short tenure has nothing to do with them and everything to do with what may be called a personal vendetta being waged against me and anyone who is seen to be sharing my vision for Vector,” he said. “Their departure from Vector is sadly embarrassing and a significant loss and not in Vector’s best interests — something I’d hoped that all shareholders had close to their hearts.
“Sadly, some actions of my fellow directors in the last few months have not been driven by any wish to do what is best for Vector but rather for their own personal desires.”
Buczkowski kept his own comments to the meeting brief and upbeat, giving a rundown of his CV and saying he wanted to increase Vector’s share price and dividend.
Stiassny cut off a question from the floor to Patterson, asking if she intended to stand for chair. That was a matter for the new board to discuss, Stiassny said. The departing chairman also defended Vector’s June decision to partner with mPrest, maker of Israel’s “Iron Dome” antirocket system on smart grid technology.
“The statement has been made that mPrest have been involved in making military equipment — bombs etc. Under no circumstance while I’ve been at Vector would we have tolerated that, and they don’t do that,” Stiassny told shareholders. “What they do is create a defence system that does not kill anyone — completely different.”
He added: “It’s a bit sad it’s been discussed in the press so negatively when, for instance, Rocket Lab, which we all think is the most wonderful thing, and it is, is significantly owned by Lockheed Martin, which does produce weapons that kill people. But no one really cares about that.”