Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, may be forced to leave the company by its shareholders. The proposal was initiated by SumOfUs, a team of shareholders, and an independent chairperson of the company that can lead Facebook with a different type of governance and a more pro-shareholder direction.
According to a report by Venture Beat, a number of Facebook’s shareholders have filed a proposal to remove the founder from the board of directors. The proposal was filed by SumOfUs, described as an online team that is in charge of the company’s different issues including discrimination, rights of the worker, corruption and a lot more.
In the filed proposal, Andrew Grove, former chair of the company, said Zuckerberg should be able to separate being a CEO and being an employee of the company. He said, “Is a company a sandbox for the CEO, or is the CEO an employee?” If he is an employee, then he must have a boss like the board to do that but he can’t do that because he is also his own boss.
The proposal was reported to be supported by more than 300,000 people but upon checking, only 1,500 of it were actual shareholders of the company. They believe that the CEO position must be given to a person or the board that can lead Facebook to a direction that most would agree on. This is because they want a new capital structure for the firm to minimize the rights of major shareholders that give them the right to implement things without the need of the majority’s vote.
However, Zuckerberg is a major shareholder of Facebook so it is very likely that he will not be affected by the filed proposal of SumOfUs. He always had a big say in all the decisions of the company and so far his decision has not made any significant loss for the company.
