Activist Pro Tip: Don’t Put Your Girlfriend on the Board
Alex Denner of Sarissa Capital Management makes the wrong move at Biogen and needlessly jeopardizes his future efforts.
Bad move.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
As an activist investor, Alex Denner has made a career out of telling companies what they are doing wrong and convincing shareholders that he can make them better. A cringey corporate governance disaster risks ending his ability to do either.
Denner, the head of Sarissa Capital Management, is stepping down from the board of drugmaker Biogen Inc. to pursue a campaign against one of its partners, Alkermes Plc. If that seems questionable, it is nothing compared to Denner’s solution for filling the seat he’s vacating. In a brazenly inappropriate act, Denner has determined that his girlfriend, Susan Langer, is the fiduciary Biogen and its shareholders need.