Back in 2012 as the palace coup was getting under way at Chesapeake Energy, five new board members were installed by corporate raiders Carl Ichan and Mason Hawkins (the two biggest stockholders in the company). At that time, Ichan and Hawkins selected Archie Dunham, then 73 years old, as the new chairman of the board (see Chesapeake Energy’s Board Changes, Archie Dunham New Chairman). Dunham is the retired chairman of ConocoPhillips. He was previously chairman, president and chief executive officer of Conoco Inc. from 1999-2002, after being elected president and CEO in 1996. To his credit, Dunham has stuck around at Chessy. He’s obviously drinking the Doug Lawler (current CEO of Chesapeake) Kool Aid and believes mass firings and selling everything but the kitchen sink will turn the company into a money maker. He believes so much he just spent $13,980,000 of his own money to buy 1 million shares of stock, upping his stake in the company to 2.6 million shares. Dunham thinks the stock is at its rock bottom right now and has no place else to go but up. Is Dunham crazy like a fox? Or is he just plain crazy?…
