Anne Wojcicki attends the WSJ Magazine Style & Tech Dinner in Atherton, California on March 15, 2023.
Kelly Sullivan | Getty Images Entertainment | fake images
23yyo named three new independent directors to its board, the company announced Tuesday, a month after its seven previous directors abruptly resigned.
The new board members are Andre Fernández, former CFO of WeWork; Jim Frankola, former CFO of enterprise cloud company Cloudera; and Mark Jensen, technology advisor and former managing partner at Deloitte, according to a statement. The only other board member is 23andMe co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki.
Fernandez, Frankola and Jensen will serve on the board's audit committee and compensation committee, the company said. Jensen will serve as lead independent director and chair of the compensation committee, while Fernandez will chair the audit committee.
“I am excited to welcome these three experienced directors to the 23andMe board and look forward to working with them,” Wojcicki said in the statement.
23andMe's previous independent directors announced their resignations in a letter to Wojcicki in September, writing that they disagreed with her about the “strategic direction of the company.”
The genetic testing company, once valued at $6 billion, has struggled since going public in 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Shares were hovering below $1 until 23andMe announced a 1-for-20 reverse split of the Company's Class A and Class B common stock earlier this month.
The company's shares were trading around $5 on Tuesday morning.
To help 23andMe explore potential paths forward, the company's former independent directors formed a special committee in late March. Wojcicki submitted a proposal to take the company private in July, but it was rejected by the special committee, in part because it lacked committed financing and did not offer a premium over the closing price of 40 cents per share at the time.
Trustees gave Wojcicki the opportunity to submit a more appropriate revised proposal, but he did not receive it, according to the September letter.
“We believe it is in the best interest of the Company's stockholders for us to resign from the Board rather than have a protracted and distracting difference of opinion with you regarding the direction of the Company,” they wrote.
In the weeks since the board members' departure, Wojcicki has repeatedly said she remains committed to privatizing the company.
