Darden's Board Appoints Additional Director - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI) announced Thursday that its board has appointed William Simon to the company's Board, effective immediately. As a result of this action, the Board also voted to expand the number of seats on the Board to 13.

Simon, most recently the Chief Executive Officer of Walmart U.S. and a former senior executive at Brinker International, previously served on Darden's Board for two years but did not stand for re-election at the Company's Annual Meeting earlier this month.

Darden noted that its board will continue to evaluate additional qualified candidates and may, or may not, make an additional appointment to the Board in the future.

On Tuesday, Darden Restaurants said that Clarence Otis stepped down as chief executive officer with immediate effect. He would be succeeded by Gene Lee, previously president and chief operating officer, as interim CEO.

The management changes came just days after all twelve directors nominated by activist investor and Darden Restaurants' key shareholder, Starboard Value L.P., were elected to the restaurant chain operator's board.

The election of Starboard Value's nominees marked a victory for the hedge fund in its proxy battle with the full-service restaurants operator. Starboard Value, which has beneficial ownership of about 8.8 percent of Darden Restaurants' shares, had sought to replace the company's entire board with its own nominees.

The company's new board had appointed Starboard Value CEO Jeffrey Smith as independent non-executive chairman of the board.