MGM has named former Pixar CFO Ann Mather the head of its new board of directors, the company announced Thursday.
With the company just out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Mather will preside over the board as MGM returns to making movies. The company has lined up $500 million in exit funding from the bankruptcy, which it will use to keep the studio running and to help fund its part of production on "The Hobbit."
Mather is best known for her five years as the chief financial officer of Pixar. After leaving the animation house in 2004, Mather joined the boards of Google, Netflix, and mobile game maker Glu Mobile.
Bankruptcy filings show that MGM has tapped a combination of new and old media executives, as well as former creditors, for its overhauled board of directors.
Jason O. Hirschhorn, co-president of MySpace, and former CBS chief financial officer Frederic G. Reynolds are among those who will be directors of the new company.
Carl Icahn also has control of one board seat, a cherry the billionaire investor received for endorsing a post-Chapter 11 takeover by Spyglass chiefs Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum.
Barber and Birnbaum will also have seats on the board.
The full release:
LOS ANGELES, CA, December 23, 2010 – MGM Holdings Inc. (MGM), the independent, privately-held motion picture, television, home video, and theatrical production and distribution company today announced former Pixar Chief Financial Officer Ann Mather will join the Board of Directors of the newly restructured company. Mather will serve as the Lead Director of the nine-member Board that includes Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, Chief Executive Officers of MGM and Co-Chairman of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Incand its operating subsidiaries.
Mather’s appointment coincides with the company’s December 20th announcement that their restructuring plan has become effective, including exit financing of $500 million, arranged by JP Morgan. As the Lead Director, Mather will oversee governance of the studio and its operating units, working in tandem with directors Barber and Birnbaum; former CBS Chief Financial Officer Fred Reynolds; former MySpace President Jason Hirschhorn; Christopher Pucillo, the founder of Solus Alternative Asset Management; Patrick H. Daugherty, a partner at Highland Capital Management LP; and Kevin Ulrich, chief executive officer of Anchorage Capital Group LLC. The final vacancy is expected to be filled within the next several weeks.
MGM has a significantly improved financial position with secured lenders exchanging approximately $5 billion, including accrued interest and fees, for most of the equity in the company. Highland, Solus and Anchorage were part of the creditors’ committee that helped negotiate Los Angeles-based MGM’s restructuring, along with Davidson Kempner Capital Management LLC, and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
