The company and once-recalcitrant Chairman and Chief Executive Dwayne O. Andreas are expected to launch talks with federal investigators soon. ADM declined to comment on the probe. Eight of the 17 directors are expected to step down this fall. Three new outside directors have been selected, and investors are pushing for more heavyweight outsiders in coming years. As management influence wanes, pro-shareholder moves could follow, such as higher cash dividends and a formal link between executive pay and stock performance, which are unrelated today.
Activists still have plenty to fault.
One of the new, clean-sweep candidates for the board is a relative of an ADM executive. Such an insular, informally run company may not change its stripes soon. The expected departure of those executives could create a vacuum. Prudential Securities Inc. The key question is just how fast. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.