Burford hires two directors in governance push
Burford Capital has recruited two experienced non-executive directors as the embattled litigation funder seeks to fend off criticisms of its corporate governance.
Robert Gillespie, the ex-head of the UK's Takeover Panel, and John Sievwright, a former senior Merrill Lynch executive, will stand for election to the board at Burford's annual general meeting in May.
They will be joined by Christopher Bogart, Burford's chief executive. Burford reassigned its former finance director, Elizabeth O'Connell, to be head of strategy in August because she was married to Bogart, one of Burford's founders.
Burford has been under siege since August when US short seller Muddy Waters accused it of misrepresenting its returns and the health of its business. Muddy Waters dismissed Burford's previous governance revamp as farcical. Burford has since reorganised its management structure in an effort to respond to shareholder concerns.
Gillespie, who is 64 and Sievwright, 65, have no previous connections to Burford and were introduced to the company by headhunters Korn Ferry. They will join the audit committee after the AGM, resulting in a majority of independent directors on the committee.
Chairman Peter Middleton, the former Treasury mandarin and chairman of Barclays, will step down at the AGM. Middleton, 85, will be replaced by Deputy Chairman Steve Wilson for a three-year term. Burford said though Wilson has officially been on the board too long to serve for three years the UK's governance code allows an exception for succession planning.
Burford said it would look for another independent director before the 2021 AGM to complying with UK guidelines that say at least half the board should be independent. The company said it wanted to recruit a woman after trying unsuccessfully to attract a female board member this time.
Middleton said: "Burford's board has worked extremely well together for the past decade … This is a natural time in the development of the business for Burford to begin to refresh its board, but it is important that process happen methodically and with opportunity for transition."
Burford shares fell 7.2% to 553p at 15:06 GMT.