A trio of existing Grubb & Ellis Co. directors appears to have been re-elected by shareholders of the Santa Ana-based real estate brokerage and investor, thwarting an attempt by former chairman Tony Thompson to rejoin the board along with two hand-picked candidates.
A heavily contested vote over the makeup of Grubb & Ellis’ board was held Wednesday morning at Grubb & Ellis’ annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Three seats on the eight-person board were up for grabs in one of the noisier board fights Orange County’s seen in years.
Thompson, Grubb’s second-largest shareholder and head of Irvine-based upstart real estate investor Thompson National Properties, had been looking to rejoin the board, citing poor company earnings and stock performance.
His slate of candidates included Stuart Tanz, the former chairman and chief executive of San Diego’s Pan Pacific Retail Properties Inc., and Harold Ellis, who cofounded Grubb and served as chairman and chief executive until 1992.
Thompson’s attempts at getting back on the board he left early this year appear to have failed, according to Grubb officials.
Grubb officials said initial results of the vote appear to show that the company’s endorsed slate of existing directors,Harold Greene, Devin Murphy and D. Fleet Wallace, were re-elected by shareholders, the company said.
The results of today’s vote are unofficial. A final tally will not be confirmed for a few weeks, officials note.
A call to Thompson National Properties for comment was not immediately returned.
