, JANA and the company entered into a cooperation agreement, pursuant to which the company agreed to accept the resignation of current directors Adam Messinger, Dan Scholnick and Jim Tolonen from the board and to appoint Kevin Galligan and Susan D. Arthur as directors to the board. JANA agreed to withdraw its May 20 director nomination notice and to abide by certain customary standstill provisions.JANA is not the first activist to engage with New Relic.
JANA settled for two board seats here, one for Kevin Galligan, partner and director of research of JANA Strategic Investments, and one for Susan D. Arthur, CEO of CareerBuilder. This is consistent with JANA's activist strategy – buying at a good price where there is an opportunity for strategic activism and operational activism in conjunction with a director with industry or operational experience.
Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Monitor, an institutional research service on shareholder activism, and he is the founder and portfolio manager of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist 13D investments. Squire is also the creator of the AESG™ investment category, an activist investment style focused on improving ESG practices of portfolio companies.