For Some CEOs, a Divorce Spilled Into Corporate Realm
January 09 2019 - 04:43PM
Dow Jones News
By Micah Maidenberg
Divorces involving corporate leaders have been known to get
messy and sometimes can have a big effect on their companies. Here
are some notable separations:
-- Jack Welch, the former chief executive at General Electric
Co., and his former wife, Jane Beasley, divorced in 2003. Mr. Welch
sought the breakup after his affair with a Harvard Business Review
editor became public. Ms. Beasley tarnished Mr. Welch's image by
revealing in court papers that the couple received an array of GE
retirement perks, ranging from the use of a New York apartment to
free flowers, wine, dry cleaning and even vitamins. Mr. Welch wrote
that the papers filed by his wife " grossly misrepresented many
aspects of my employment contract with General Electric." He agreed
to relinquish $2.5 million a year in perks.
-- Steve Wynn, founder of Wynn Resorts Ltd., and Elaine Wynn
divorced in 2010. In 2012, the pair started fighting in court as
Ms. Wynn sought to get out of a shareholder agreement, struck
during the divorce proceedings, that gave Mr. Wynn voting control
over her shares and restricted her ability to sell the stock.
Allegations of sexual misconduct against Mr. Wynn eventually led to
a settlement of that dispute and the sale of Mr. Wynn's stake, and
left Ms. Wynn the company's largest individual shareholder.
--In November 2014, Sue Ann Arnall, the former wife of Oklahoma
energy investor and executive Harold Hamm, was awarded $975 million
in a divorce settlement after a contentious two-and-1/2-year case.
Ms. Arnall initially rejected the settlement, which also included
two homes, a ranch and other assets, but changed her mind. The
couple had been married for 26 years.
--In 2015, Kenneth Griffin, the billionaire founder of hedge
fund Citadel, settled a divorce case with Anne Dias, who previously
worked as a hedge-fund manager. During divorce proceedings in
Chicago, the couple made filings about private arguments, access to
vacation homes and private jets. Mr. Griffin won several victories
in the settlement, with Ms. Dias agreeing that a prenuptial
agreement, which paid her millions of dollars, was valid.
--Lorna Wendt, the former wife of Gary Wendt, a former top
executive at GE Capital, sought half of the couple's estate during
divorce proceedings in the late 1990s. In 1997, a judge awarded her
a package then worth more than $20 million that included some of
Mr. Wendt's GE stock options and half the dividends from his
restricted stockholdings.
-- Real-estate magnate Frank McCourt's divorce from his wife
earlier this decade eventually led to the sale of the Los Angeles
Dodgers. Frank fired his then-wife from her role as team president
around the time that the divorce proceedings began in 2009. Their
lawyers spent the next two years wrangling over ownership of the
Dodgers. She relinquished her claim on the team for a widely
reported $130 million settlement in 2011.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 09, 2019 16:28 ET (21:28 GMT)
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