Recent weeks have seen an extraordinary rise in the recognition and exercise of shareholders’ rights in the running of corporate UK. The two most high-profile examples of this activism, which led to entirely different outcomes, saw the forced resignation of Michael Green at Carlton, and the election of James Murdoch as chief executive of British Sky Broadcasting.
Both cases gnaw away at that post-Higgs report bastion of boardroom independence, the non-executive director. In the Carlton example, the non-executive directors were overruled by a group of investors led by the US fund manager Fidelity.
