Who are the directors at the Tribune Company who will decide whether CEO Randy Michaels should stay or go? Only a few of the nine are likely to be well known to people in media industries.
There are 10 board members in all, but we will exclude Randy Michaels from this list of those deciding his fate.
Board Chairman Sam Zell is the one who recruited Michaels to come to Tribune. They had been previously associated at Jacor Communications, where Zell came in as the primary owner in a financial restructuring. He, Michaels and their investors made big profits when Jacor was merged with Clear Channel. Michaels stayed and became the head of Clear Channel Radio for several years until his clashes with the members of the founding Mays family became too much for either side to live with.
Very well known to RBR-TVBR readers is Frank Wood, CEO of Secret Communications, which was once a radio group owner and is now a venture capital company. He was once president of Jacor Communications.
Also on the Tribune board is Mark Shapiro, Partner and CEO of Dick Clark Productions as well as a network media consultant for the National Football League. He was previously CEO of Six Flags Entertainment Corporation.
Tribune director Jeffrey S. Berg is Chairman and CEO of International Creative Management Inc., one of the world’s premiere talent and literary agencies.
Brian L. Greenspun is Chairman and CEO of The Greenspun Corporation, a privately owned firm based in Henderson, NV, with interests in media and commercial real estate development. He also is President and Editor of the Las Vegas Sun, which has been exclusively an online newspaper for several years.
Betsy D. Holden is a senior advisor to McKinsey & Company. She previously served as president of global marketing and category development at Kraft Foods Inc. from January 2004 through June 2005 and before that was the company’s co-CEO from 2001 to 2003 and president and CEO of Kraft Foods North America from 2000 to 2003.
William A. Osborn is Chairman and a director of Northern Trust Corporation, a large banking company.
William Pate is chief investment officer for Equity Group Investments LLC, a privately held investment firm controlled by Sam Zell.
Maggie Wilderotter is Chairman and CEO of Frontier Communications Corporation, a telecom company serving mostly rural areas and small communities.
