Boards Of Directors

Meg Whitman, the former chief executive of EBay Inc., has resigned from the board of directors of the online auction company and two other corporations, fueling speculation that she is preparing for a 2010 run for California governor. The resignations, which were effective Wednesday, from EBay, Procter & Gamble Co. and DreamWorks SKG were made for personal reasons, Whitman spokesman Henry Gomez said Monday. Gomez declined to comment "on anything having to do with the governor's race."

Before its portfolio of bad loans helped trigger the housing crisis, mortgage giant Freddie Mac was the focus of a major accounting scandal that led to a management shake-up, huge fines and scalding condemnation of passive directors. One of those board members was Rahm Emanuel, now chief of staff to President Obama. Emanuel earned at least $320,000 for his 14-month stint at Freddie Mac.

A pension board appointee of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may have violated city law by accepting a campaign donation from a Los Angeles businessman whose client sought a $10-million investment from the board. Kelly Candaele, who served until three weeks ago on the board of the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System, received $1,000 on Dec. 2 from Dan Weinstein, managing director of Wetherly Capital Group. That firm pitches investments to city and state pension boards.

Heidi Marie Petersen's knowledge of strategy and spreadsheets at a board meeting in Norway last year made a male colleague sit up and take note. "Wow! You actually know something about business," the man said after the meeting, Petersen says. The 49-year-old mother of two now serves on the boards of 11 companies, including Norsk Hydro, Europe's second-largest aluminum producer, and Aker Kvaerner, Norway's biggest engineering company.

Richard Breeden, founder of activist investment fund Breeden Capital Management, has one goal this year: no proxy battles. But he acknowledges achieving this is unlikely, given his record. Since founding his $1-billion-plus firm 18 months ago, he has launched two major proxy battles that have won him seats on the boards of H&R Block Inc. and Applebee's International Inc. And last Friday, jewelry chain Zale Corp. gave up without a fight, giving Breeden two seats on its board.

Liberty Media Corp.'s John Malone, a longtime business partner of Barry Diller, moved Monday to oust Diller from the board of the IAC/InterActiveCorp Internet conglomerate. The move was the latest in dueling lawsuits the two sides filed in Delaware courts after IAC said it planned to break itself into five separate companies. Liberty says that would rob the media holding company of its shareholder voting power.

California's troubled state-backed workers' compensation insurance company must revamp its board of directors, stop meeting in secret and modernize its corporate governance, lawmakers demanded Wednesday. The call for a sweeping overhaul of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, which is currently the target of a criminal investigation, came at a hearing of the state Senate's Banking, Finance and Insurance Committee.

Nelson Peltz's Trian Partners said Monday that it was attempting to gain control of the board at hamburger chain Wendy's International Inc., which it is trying to buy. Trian Partners said in a regulatory filing Monday that it had notified Wendy's of its intention to expand the board and to nominate director candidates at Wendy's upcoming annual shareholders' meeting. If successful, Trian would seize control of Wendy's board. Billionaire investor Peltz's Triarc Cos.

The Orange County Great Park will let two of its board members look at resumes it received in a disputed search for a chief executive last year, according to a settlement reached Thursday. The park board will allow Irvine City Council members Steven Choi and Christina Shea, in a closed session, to examine and make copies of resumes, e-mails, phone records and other documents from the job search, according to the settlement, which an Orange County Superior Court judge must approve.

Its patience running thin, Microsoft Corp. said Saturday it would turn its $40-billion bid for Yahoo Inc. hostile and probably lower its offer if the companies don't reach a deal within three weeks. Microsoft vowed to nominate a slate of Yahoo directors who support a takeover if the deadline isn't met. The world's biggest software company also went out of its way to quash Wall Street speculation that it would raise its 2-month-old offer to seal a deal.