Chicago Daily Herald: Cries for Zander's ouster growing

From this morning's Chicago Daily Herald:

By Anna Marie Kukec
Daily Herald Business Writer
akukec@dailyherald.com
Posted Tuesday, July 31, 2007

A Florida-based consultant credited with helping to oust a chief executive at Yahoo Inc. has been gaining a following in his quest to remove Motorola Inc.'s chief executive.

Eric Jackson, president of Jackson Leadership Systems Inc., a governance consulting firm in Naples, Fla., said Monday that he has 126 people now behind him who collectively own about 600,000 Motorola shares.

He submitted a plan Monday to the company's board of directors seeking the immediate removal of CEO Ed Zander and to enlist other changes to get the beleaguered communications company back on track.

"I am hoping that our plan will be taken seriously by the non-executive members of the board and that they will agree to meet with me to discuss our ideas," said Jackson. "It would look badly on them if they refused. From that dialogue, I hope we'll be able to find some common ground which will be beneficial to all shareholders."

Jackson follows billionaire activist Carl Icahn, who earlier this year failed to win a seat on the Motorola board in his quest to change the company's direction.

Jackson's previous campaign was against former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, who resigned under fire more than a month ago. Jackson included videos about him on YouTube and a page on Flickr as part of that campaign.

A Motorola spokeswoman Monday declined to comment on Jackson's plan. However, Motorola executives have said that the board has not been looking to replace Zander.

Jackson, who owns about 100 Motorola shares, set up a "pledge" site at the beginning of his campaign three weeks ago at www.youchoose.net/pledge/motorolaplanb .

"If they fail to acknowledge us, we will look to pursue a special shareholder vote perhaps sooner than the annual meeting seeking faster changes," said Jackson.

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