Shotgun Wedding: New Board Member Forced on WPX Energy

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shotgun weddingYesterday WPX Energy, the spin-off drilling company from midstream giant Williams Partners, announced the appointment of Karl Kurz to the board of directors. MDN previously told you that WPX is being jerked around by its second largest stockholder, Taconic Capital Advisors, which led to the firing of the WPX’s CEO (see CEO Shake-up Explained: Taconic Capital Jerking WPX’s Chain). It appears that Kurz, previously COO for Anadarko Petroleum, is Taconic’s toady on the board–there to do his masters’ bidding.

Here’s the interesting thing to MDN: Williams, WPX’s one-time parent that still has a major stake in WPX, was attacked by a Carl Ichan disciple at the same time WPX was attacked by Taconic–no coincidence if you ask us (see Bad News: Corporate Raiders Take Aim at Williams). Carl Icahn’s toady at Chesapeake Energy is it’s new CEO Doug Lawler–a one time executive at Anadarko (see The Great Chesapeake Massacre: Lawler Fires 800 People in One Day). Now we get a former Anadarko person on the board at WPX. See a trend here?…

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