Marathon Announces Agreement With Elliott Management
Marathon Petroleum Corporation has entered into a cooperation agreement with shareholder and vocal critic Elliott Management as it looks for a replacement for outgoing CEO Gary Heminger.
In October Marathon announced that Chairman and CEO Gary Heminger will be retiring and the company will be spinning off Speedway.
The full news release from Marathon concerning the agreement with Elliott Management moving forward is below.
Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Elliott Management and will appoint Jonathan Z. Cohen to the company’s board of directors, effective Dec. 16, 2019. Mr. Cohen will fill the seat of retiring executive and board member Greg Goff.
Cohen brings broad industry and financial experience to the board, including as a founder and executive of multiple energy-related businesses in the exploration and production, and midstream sectors. Among others, he was co-founder and vice chairman of Atlas Energy, Inc.; co-founder of Atlas Pipeline Partners, LP; and co-founder of the general partner of Arc Logistics Partners LP. Mr. Cohen currently serves as chairman of the board of directors of Falcon Minerals Corporation and previously served on the board of directors of Energen Corp. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his Juris Doctor from American University School of Law.
“We are pleased to welcome Jonathan to the MPC board,” said Gary R. Heminger, MPC chairman and chief executive officer. Cohen joins the board with valuable executive leadership experience in the energy and natural resources industry. “We look forward to his contributions as we continue executing on our strategic initiatives,” said Heminger.
Mr. Cohen will serve on the special committee of the MPC board charged with evaluating options for the midstream business, as well as the special committee of the MPC board charged with overseeing the MPC CEO search process, which continues to progress.
Elliott’s Senior Portfolio Manager John Pike and Associate Portfolio Manager Phillip Zeigler commented on Mr. Cohen’s appointment to the board: “We believe Jonathan will be a positive addition to the MPC board and the special committees given his extensive energy experience and financial expertise. We look forward to the continued progress of the company’s ongoing strategic initiatives and think Jonathan will add a valuable perspective to those efforts.”
Additionally, MPC announced today its agreement to the addition of an independent advisor to serve in a non-voting capacity as advisor to the special committee of the MPC board evaluating midstream options. The MPC board expects to provide an update on the work of the special midstream committee in the first quarter of 2020.
As announced on Oct. 31, 2019, MPC intends to separate Speedway into an independent, publicly traded company, creating the largest U.S. listed convenience store operator. In an update, MPC today announced that work on the separation is progressing well and the company is targeting early fourth quarter 2020 for completion of the transaction, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.