Canoe Health said Friday that Dr. Marlo Hernandez has agreed to step down as CEO effective immediately, in an announcement made a day after the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
Hernandez, who has served as CEO since 2014, will continue to serve as director.
Canoe’s chief operating officer, Mark Kent, will step in as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor.
In after-hours trading, Canoe’s shares rebounded and were trading around $1.45 per share, up 16%.
Hernandez’s ouster followed Thursday’s annual meeting, during which shareholders re-elected directors Dr. Alan Mune and Kim Rivera. A However, a large number of shareholders withheld their support of Muni and Rivera.According to a post-meeting statement by President Solomon Trujillo.
A company spokeswoman said the vote tally would be included in a regulatory filing. No Tahrir was given till Friday afternoon.
Three former directors who actively sought Hernandez’s removal as CEO said in a statement that 75% of shareholders withheld their votes rather than vote for Mune and Rivera.
three former directors, Barry Sternlicht, a billionaire real estate investor; Dr. Lewis Gould, Co-Founder of Sheridan Healthcare; And Elliot Cooperstone, managing partner at Intandem Capital Partners, said Muni and Rivera only retained their seats based on Canoe Health’s “antiquated plurality voting policy”. According to a company source, Muni and Rivera did not need a majority of shareholders to be re-elected.
A spokeswoman for all three did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On June 9, three former directors sought to reopen the nomination window for directors by filing a preliminary injunction with the Delaware Court of Chancery the previous Friday to prevent Cano from holding the annual meeting of stockholders. That offer was declined.