Boards Of Directors

The Orange County Great Park board appointed Michael D. Ellzey, a Tulare County administrator, as deputy chief executive Thursday, a week after two board members walked out of a closed-door meeting in which the new position was discussed. Irvine City Council members Christina Shea and Steven Choi left last week's meeting, saying they believed it was illegal to discuss in secret a position that didn't yet exist. Ellzey, a former executive director of the Golden Gate Park Concourse Authority in San Francisco, was one of five finalists in a national chief executive search that came to an abrupt halt in November after two men with ties to Irvine City Hall rose to the top of the field of 150 candidates.

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.

New York Times Co. defused a standoff Monday with its largest outside shareholder, Harbinger Capital, by agreeing to support two people nominated by the hedge fund as directors at its annual meeting next month. Harbinger had accumulated a 19% stake in the company in recent weeks, rivaling the amount held by the Sulzberger family. The Sulzbergers still control the company through a special class of shares that allow them to name 70% of the board. The Times will expand its board from 13 to 15 to accommodate the new nominees, one of whom is Scott Galloway, a New York University marketing professor and shareholder activist who has been advising Harbinger.

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.

Deepening the conflict within Hollywood's biggest union, the Screen Actors Guild's board of directors on Saturday rebuffed a demand by more than 1,400 actors that it immediately move to limit who can vote in upcoming contract negotiations. Kevin Bacon, Glenn Close, Ben Affleck, Ethan Hawke and hundreds of other guild members signed a petition calling on the board to require that only actors who work at least one day a year be allowed to vote on the principal film and TV contract.

In another hang-up in the quest to build a massive park in Orange County, Irvine's Great Park board voted Thursday to suspend its contentious search for a chief executive until January. Two council members last year questioned the fairness of the city's national search for an executive to oversee the conversion of the former El Toro Marine base, after two men with ties to City Hall rose to the top of 150 candidates, then declined the position.

The chief executive of the California Public Employees' Retirement System is planning to leave by the end of the year amid tensions with the board, according to two people familiar with the matter. The board is in discussions with Fred Buenrostro, 58, about his departure from the largest U.S. public pension fund, known as CalPERS, said the people, who declined to be identified. He has been in the job since 2002 and was a member of the board of directors for 15 years. CalPERS has $244 billion in assets.

Circuit City Stores Inc. on Friday gave in to pressure from activist shareholders, essentially putting itself up for sale and agreeing to nominate dissident directors to its board. The electronics retailer announced that it would open its books to Blockbuster Inc., as well as Blockbuster's largest shareholder, Carl Icahn. It did so after Icahn defused concerns over whether Blockbuster could finance its takeover bid for Circuit City by saying he was prepared to buy the company if all else failed.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System governing board named Ken Marzion interim chief executive, replacing Fred Buenrostro, who is leaving for the private sector. Marzion, 53, has worked at the pension fund for 33 years and is the assistant executive officer of its actuarial and employer services branch.

United Talent Agency named partners Tracey Jacobs and David Kramer to its board of directors. Jacobs is co-head of the talent department and represents actors including Johnny Depp and Harrison Ford. Kramer is a motion picture literary agent whose clients include screenwriters Charlie Kaufman and John August.