MONTREAL, Jan. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gildan Activewear Inc. (GIL: TSX and NYSE) ("Gildan" or "the Company") today provides details on the timeline of events leading up to Glenn Chamandy's removal as CEO.
For more than a month, Browning West and Glenn Chamandy have claimed that the Board of Directors carried out a flawed CEO succession process. The facts, backed by years of documentation and Mr. Chamandy's own words, tell a much different story.
In December 2021, the Board and Mr. Chamandy agreed to an orderly three-year succession plan. Had Mr. Chamandy abided by his agreement, rather than attempting to entrench himself as CEO, the recent turmoil at Gildan would have been avoided.
We now know that Mr. Chamandy never intended to abide by the agreed succession plan. He made that clear when he told the Globe and Mail on December 16, 2023 "I had no intention of leaving. You know, my view is that I would leave when I think the time is right for the company."
The Board, on the other hand, has consistently acted to carry out its fiduciary duties to ensure management had a strategy for the longer term, to prepare for the succession of the CEO and to position Gildan for future success by recruiting and appointing a highly qualified CEO.
A Timeline of Facts
2021
At the May 2021 Board meeting, Mr. Chamandy informed the Board that he planned to retire within three to five years.
That was followed by a December 7, 2021 meeting where the Chair Donald Berg and Mr. Chamandy agreed to a formal succession process for Mr. Chamandy's retirement which would have seen him stepping down as CEO in December 2024 and leaving the Company following a reasonable transition period with the new chief executive. Mr. Chamandy agreed to that plan. Mr. Berg and Mr. Chamandy then discussed the CEO succession plan in most of their quarterly feedback meetings and communications over the next two years.
2022
In January 2022, the Board hired a leading executive search firm to advise the Board on Gildan's CEO succession as well as to conduct internal assessment and development work.
In March 2022, the Board, including Mr. Chamandy, discussed and approved a CEO position description and profile. Over the next year, that profile was used to evaluate internal candidates and to narrow the external search from a universe of 515 profiles to a list of 37 potential candidates.
2023
In May 2023, the executive search firm began the external phase of the search, further refining the list of potential CEO candidates.
At the August 2023 Board meetings, Mr. Chamandy demanded that he be provided with a definitive and final timeline on the succession process, which was considered by the independent Board members at a special meeting of the Board on August 31, 2023.
Prior to this special meeting, Mr. Chamandy sent a memorandum outlining his new proposal and thoughts regarding CEO succession planning to Mr. Berg. Contrary to the plan agreed to in December 2021, this proposal contemplated yet another three-year timeline, prolonging Mr. Chamandy's tenure far beyond the original timeframe. According to Mr. Chamandy, he needed to stay on for several more years to oversee internal development and transition thereafter.
The Board held its special meeting on August 31, 2023 to review the succession plan, Mr. Chamandy's proposal, and determine the succession timeframe. At that meeting, the Board decided to continue to evaluate both internal and external candidates for CEO and rejected Mr. Chamandy's proposal extending him as CEO for an additional three years as it included no new facts to justify delaying the plan originally agreed to. In particular, it was noted that there was no new strategy being proposed that required Mr. Chamandy's ongoing oversight and that Mr. Chamandy's recent actions to terminate a senior executive in Manufacturing, within seven months of his joining Gildan, indicated no willingness or ability to develop internal successors. It was clear that Mr. Chamandy was out of ideas to move Gildan forward.
By September, the CEO search had narrowed to a shortlist of 21 candidates.
On September 6, 2023, ...