By JOHN
LETZING And JOANN S.
LUBLIN
A large
California pension fund has challenged Facebook Inc. over what it sees as a
lack of diversity on the company's board of directors, just days after the
social-networking firm filed papers to go public in a closely watched IPO.
In a
letter addressed to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday,
California State Teachers' Retirement System Director of Corporate Governance
Anne Sheehan wrote that, "We are disappointed that the Facebook board will
not have any woman members."
"This
is particularly glaring at a time when there is clear evidence that companies
with diverse boards perform far better than the companies with more homogenous
boards," Sheehan wrote.
In
addition, Ms. Sheehan wrote that Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl
Sandberghas been supportive of increasing the diversity on boards.
CalSTRS
has invested in Facebook through its private equity allocation, and will
"most likely" invest in the company's common stock once it goes
public.
Facebook
filed its initial IPO papers last week, kick-starting an IPO that could value
the company at up to $100 billion.
CalSTRS
decided to send the letter after seeing Facebook's IPO filing and being
"struck by the composition of the board," said Janice Hester-Amey,
portfolio manager for corporate governance at the big public pension fund.
Ms.
Hester-Amey added that Facebook appears to lack both women as well as men of
color. CalSTRS' stake in Facebook was worth about $30 million as of June 30,
she said.
Facebook's
board currently includes Mr. Zuckerberg, technology executive Marc Andreessen,
venture capitalist Jim Breyer, Washington Post Co. CEO Donald Graham,Netflix Inc.
CEO Reed
Hastings, former White House Chief of Staff Erskine
Bowles and venture
capitalist Peter
Thiel.
A
Facebook spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr.
Zuckerberg controls about 57% of Facebook's voting share power. The CalSTRS
letter does not complain about that situation, but notes "we realize that
Facebook will be a controlled company in which the public stockholders will
have little influence."
