IN OR OUT: New Rexnord and AIG CEOs, Dana White, Autodesk board refresh, Spirit Airlines

What this episode covers

Regal Renord [sic] Corporation Names Aamir Paul As New CEO IN: Louis Pinkham (24%) will also resign from the Board of Directors effective on his last day as CEO. IN IN: Because of Chair Rakesh Sachdev (15%) OUT A powerful counterpoint to a new CEO’s power Axalta Coating Systems (27%) Herc Holdings (14%) Edgewell Personal Care (13%) OUT: “On October 29, 2025, the Company announced that Mr. Pinkham, our CEO, will separate from his role with the Company in connection with a CEO search process being led by the Company’s Board. Mr. Pinkham’s separation from his role as CEO is expected to occur by June 30, 2026.” OUT What took them so long? And what’s wrong with their bench? ($8.775M golden hello) Brooke Lang: President, Power Efficiency Solutions (2022-) VP & GM of the Power Components Division Eaton (2008-2016) Jerry Morton: President, Industrial Powertrain Solutions (2015-) served as President – Integration, Motion Control Solutions from 2021-2023, President of the Power Transmission Solutions from 2019-2021, Vice President, Business Leader of Power Transmission Solutions from 2017-2019, and led the global operations for Regal Rexnord's power transmission business from 2015-2017. Kevin Long: President, Automation and Motion Control (2025-) 10 years at Dover Corporation, most recently as Group President of OPW, a global business serving the fluid handling, clean energy, cryogenics, and car wash markets. IN: Aamir spent years at Schneider Electric: essentially a AAA MSCI company ENVIRONMENT: Opportunities in Clean Tech 4.7 industry average/6.4 score (Regal is completely opposite here 4.7/3.0) IN OUT: The Board is too entrenched: get rid of Rakesh Sachdev (15%, 18 years) Curtis Stoelting (21 years, 9%), Stephen Burt (15 years) and maybe this could work. OUT UFC CEO Dana White Says WHCD Shooting Was 'Awesome' and He 'Took In Every Minute' of the Incident IN: Dana White is Dana White. Works perfectly for TKO Holdings and Meta Platforms IN IN: Because of Ari Emanuel (CEO/founder/Chair of TKO) and Zuck OUT (CEO/founder/Chair of Meta). Ari is the most powerful agent in Hollywood. Zuck is the king of social media addiction. They handle the “adult” business while Dana handles the “middle school” business TKO Group Holdings: Ari Emanuel 67% Meta Platforms: Zuck 68%; Dana White 0% OUT: Dana White is Dana White. How are major sponsors like Disney going to feel about calling a shooting “awesome.” IN: Look at the Board: these are serious douches and they love this kind of behavior OUT Ari Emanuel: known as being the a-hole of Hollywood. Silver Lake’s Egon Durban: VC bro, Elon bud, Dell buddy, say no more TKO COO Mark Shapiro: Hollywood man has served wherever there are bratty boys in charge: TKO, Endeavor (re: Elon, Ar, Egon), Dick Clark Productions, Papa John’s, Six Flags, etc. TKO LD Steve Koonin is the CEO of the Atlanta Hawks and used to serve on the WWE and GameStop boards “The Rock” Former WWE CEO Nick Khan Nepobaby Jonathan Kraft, NFL OUT: Look at the Board: these are serious douches and they love this kind of behavior. This is male toxic leadership that will eventually screw it all up. Ari Emanuel: known as being the a-hole of Hollywood. Silver Lake’s Egon Durban: VC bro, Elon bud, Dell buddy, say no more TKO COO Mark Shapiro: Hollywood man has served wherever there are bratty boys in charge: TKO, Endeavor (re: Elon, Ar, Egon), Dick Clark Productions, Papa John’s, Six Flags, etc. TKO LD Steve Koonin is the CEO of the Atlanta Hawks and used to serve on the WWE and GameStop boards “The Rock” Former WWE CEO Nick Khan Nepobaby Jonathan Kraft, NFL AIG names Andersen CEO as Zaffino moves to exec chair IN: You’re getting a two-headed monster. Eric Andersen (ex-Aon President) handles the daily operations, while Peter Zaffino stays as Exec Chair to handle the high-level strategy OUT IN: Andersen spent years at Aon. OUT Climate Change Vulnerability 6.2/8.2 Human Capital Development 4.2/4.9 Privacy & Data Security 3.8/5.0 OUT: AIG is already strong in the same places: OUT Climate Change Vulnerability 6.2/7.1 Human Capital Development 4.2/6.0 Privacy & Data Security 3.8/4.9 OUT: Peter Zaffino is a massive personality (32%). He’s going to backseat-drive every decision Andersen makes, leading to a paralyzed C-suite. OUT LD John Rice 14%, Diana Murphy 11% (4 boards), Linda Mills 11% No tenure above 10 years OUT: Crappy succession planning. Why ignore the bench? Anderson’s golden hello has not been disclosed yet but you know it’s going to be bad. What about? IN Charlie Fry: EVP, Reinsurance and Risk Capital Optimization Jon Hancock: EVP & CEO, General Insurance leads AIG’s three business segments: North America Commercial Insurance, International Commercial Insurance and Global Personal Insurance, and AIG’s Claims organization and Chief Underwriting Office. Previously, led AIG’s International Commercial Insurance and Global Personal Insurance businesses; former CEO of International General Insurance from June 2020 to December 2023; Director of Performance Management at Lloyd’s of London from 2016 to 2020 with responsibilities including oversight of performance and risk management globally across the Lloyd’s market. Pearson CEO Omar Abbosh is up for Autodesk board seat as director exits IN: Omar Abbosh led Microsoft’s Industry Solutions. Autodesk is desperate to become an AI software company: Omar is the guy who actually knows how to sell AI to enterprises. IN Omar is “Hall of Famer” Autodesk already has 2 hall-of-famers: Ram Krishnan, Rami Rahim Stephen Milligan (who Omar is replacing) = ROTATION OUT: Have a director named Jeffrey Epstein OUT IN: Chair Stacy Smith (12%; former CFO Intel) is cleaning up: replacing a hardware guy (Milligan) with a software/AI guy (Omar) OUT OUT: Despite what you might think, don’t invest because they have a female board chair: Stacy is a dude. OUT IN: Omar is CEO at Pearson, dealing with the ethics of AI in education: Autodesk is rapidly integrating AI into urban planning and architecture to foster more sustainable, equitable, and efficient cities. All boards need AI dudes like Omar OUT OUT: Omar is the CEO of Pearson. Pearson is in the middle of its own massive AI transition. He doesn’t have the bandwidth to be an effective director at Autodesk. He’s just a big name OUT OUT: Losing Stephen Milligan (ex-Western Digital CEO) could be trouble: will Autodesk overdo its AI hand? Spend too much, fire too many people? OUT Trump’s idea to ‘just buy’ bankrupt Spirit Airlines draws GOP backlash IN: CEO Dave Davis (45%) rescued Sun Country. OUT Transportation 12% Law and Government 2% Economics & Accounting 3% Sales & Marketing 0.4% IN: Director (and ALL STAR) Robert Milton (6%). Former CEO/Chair of Air Canada; led the restructuring there; isn’t at Spirit to watch it liquidate IN OUT: CFO Fred Cromer is presiding over Spirit’s second bankruptcy restructuring in under two years OUT OUT: John Bendoraitis has been the COO since 2017. He’s been the architect of the operation during Spirit’s entire decline—the engine issues, the labor disputes, and the service meltdowns OUT OUT: Trump thinks it’s a good idea IN Snap (SNAP) Appoints Doug Hott as New CFO . IN: Doug Hott is coming from Amazon. He understands addicted customers.IN OUT: former CFO Derek Anderson also came from Amazon. OUT IN: Evan Spiegel (40%) and Robert Murphy (36%), despite owning all the decisionmaking, finally have someone willing to do the dirty work and make decisions (Mr. “16% layoff” Hott is a real man.) IN OUT: Former CFO Derek Andersen is bailing right as the company announces layoffs and faces activist pressure from Irenic Capital. Maybe that’s a sign? OUT OUT: Evan Spiegel (40%) and Robert Murphy (36%) needed Irenic Capital to realize they needed to fire CFO Derek Andersen OUT OUT: New CFO Doug Hott started by firing 16% of the workforce? He will be hated forever. Plus, why invest in another heartless finance bro treating human beings like line items to be deleted? OUT: Chair Michael Lynton (8%), the only adult with power on the board, was CEO/Chair of Sony Pictures (2004-2017), when the studio faced what is widely considered the most devastating corporate scandal in Hollywood history: the 2014 Sony Pictures Hack. Run. IN