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Shaw announces board succession plan for Covetrus
  • 12
  • 03
  • 2020

Shaw announces board succession plan for Covetrus

by David E Shaw

Today I have made public my decision to not stand for re-election to the Covetrus board of directors when my term expires at our 2020 annual meeting in May, and we have announced the results of our succession planning process.  As founding chair of Covetrus and its predecessor company, Vets First Choice, I have had the honor of serving with this remarkable team for 10 years, building a game changing enterprise in veterinary medicine.  The official press release for this announcement can be viewed below:

Statement from David Evans Shaw March 12, 2020

I have announced to Covetrus (CVET) that I will not seek re-election to the company’s board of directors when my term expires in May, and I applaud the nomination of Sharon Wienbar as a result of our orderly succession planning and good governance practices.

As founding chair of the CVET board, and board chair of the predecessor company Vets First Choice, I’m grateful to have contributed over 10 years to the creation of this game-changing enterprise with a remarkable purpose-driven community of more than 5000 team members worldwide. It’s been an epically fulfilling experience to play a leadership role in an organization harnessing new technology to create exceptional value for stakeholders in this large and attractive market. I have great confidence in the team and the opportunity, and I stand ready to help in the future as a shareholder and friend of the organization.

I love entrepreneurial journeys of the kind that created Covetrus and I am fortunate to have played leadership roles in building more than a dozen of these enterprises, starting with IDEXX in the 1980s. Yet my ability to contribute at the highest level has been impacted by a life-threatening brain injury several years ago. Doctors have advised me to change my workload and better attend to my health. My intention is to focus my energies on several early stage entrepreneurial ventures as well as programs to improve behavioral health and wellbeing in society, and global efforts for better stewardship of our natural world.

As I depart the board of Covetrus, I have joined the advisory board of Just Capital, an independent nonprofit organization devoted to the belief that America’s $19 trillion private sector can be and must be a more powerful force for good in building a more just economy that better serves the needs of all stakeholders.

As a newly appointed board member of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum, I am supporting efforts for a grand opening of this amazing Colorado-based enterprise in May.

As a Patron of Nature for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), I am supporting plans for our World Conservation Congress later this year. Created in 1948, IUCN is a membership union uniquely composed of some 1300 membership governments and civil society organizations. It has evolved into the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the experience, resources and reach of its members, and some 13,000 experts, to serve as a global authority on the status of the natural world and measures needed to safeguard it via law, policy, education, communication and other means.

As the founder of Second Century Stewardship, I am playing a leadership role in bringing science-based stewardship to America’s amazing national parks, including a successful pilot program at Acadia National Park.

Additionally, I am continuing in my role as Managing Partner of Black Point Group, with wide-ranging interests in technology companies and public service.

About David Shaw

David Shaw is a prominent business and social entrepreneur with extensive global leadership experience in science-based companies, investment management and social impact NGOs. He has helped build more than a dozen successful technology companies and served in public leadership positions for science and technology, education, healthcare, arts, sports, and the conservation of nature.

Media Contact: Angie Helton, 207-653-0365 or angie@nemediaassociates.com