Olshan Client Hestia Capital Wins Four Board Seats at Pitney Bowes in First Control Slate Proxy Contest to Go to a Vote Under the Universal Proxy Card Regime

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Reuters, Seeking Alpha, and Bloomberg Law (subscription required) reported that Olshan client Hestia Capital won four board seats on the nine-person board of century-old shipping-services company Pitney Bowes. In the first-ever control slate proxy contest to go to a vote under the SEC’s new Universal Proxy card regime, stockholders elected four of the five Hestia-nominated candidates at Pitney Bowes’ 2023 annual meeting of stockholders in place of Pitney Bowes’ directors, including its Chairman. “Our slate believes it has been given a mandate for constructive, positive change, and we look forward to working with our fellow directors to deliver on that mandate over the near-term and long-term,” said Kurt Wolf, founder and chief investment officer of Hestia Capital, who was elected to the Board of Directors of Pitney Bowes along with three other Hestia Capital nominees, Katie May, Milena Alberti-Perez, and Todd Everett. Chair of Olshan’s Shareholder Activism Practice Group partner Andrew Freedman led the Olshan team that handled the matter, which also included associates Ian Engoron and Nikoleta Holevas and law clerk Ryan Busch.