Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. said its board of directors has elected Leslie M. "Bud" Baker Jr. and Marc D. Oken to become directors effective Jan. 18, 2006.
Mr. Baker, 63, is the retired chief executive officer and chairman of Wachovia Corp.
He is a board member of the National Humanities Center and the North Carolina Arboretum and a founder of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation.
Mr. Oken, 58, was chief financial officer at Bank of America Corporation. Prior to joining Bank of America, he was a partner at Price Waterhouse LLP for 15 years.
MMC said with the election of the two directors its board now consists of 13 members. All members are independent except for Michael G. Cherkasky, president and chief executive officer of MMC.
The board also approved an amendment to MMC's corporate governance guidelines, establishing a majority voting policy regarding the election of directors.
Under the policy, in an uncontested election of directors, any nominee who receives a greater number of votes "withheld" from his or her election than votes "for" must tender a resignation to the chairman of the board.
The board will act on the recommendation of the directors and governance committee with respect to the resignation within 90 days following the date of the shareholder vote. The company also promised to make prompt public disclosure of the board's decision and an explanation of the process by which the decision was reached.
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