He was CEO for zero days. but still collected $18.4 million
Amit Banati never worked a single day as CEO of Fortune Brands. He'll still collect $18.4 million.
That's a stillborn leadership transition amid board capitulation. And it cost the company $18.4 million to reverse its decision under activist pressure.
Banati was a sitting Fortune Brands board director. His prior roles were CFO at Kenvue and, before that, Kellanova. He had never run a company. The board appointed him in February to succeed Nicholas Fink, who departed after the stock fell 18% on weak Q4 earnings.
Ed Garden of Garden Investments saw the appointment as the board repeating the same error it made with Fink — an insider without the operating track record to turn around a struggling building products company. He built a stake, nominated a slate of directors, and forced a reckoning.
The board blinked. Banati stepped aside. Garden joined the board and landed seats on the Nominating and Governance Committee and the Compensation Committee — the two committees that will now select the next CEO and structure the package that attracts them.
Garden isn't just on the board. He's inside the process that chooses who runs the company.
This is Fortune Brands' third CEO situation in roughly a month: Fink out, Banati in for zero days, search restarted. And the CFO departed simultaneously. That governance backdrop is what the next CEO candidate will inherit — and what every serious candidate will evaluate before accepting.
At Eagle Talon, the more pointed question: if the activist controls the committee selecting the next CEO, can the board run a process that produces the right answer — even if that answer happens to align with one investor's view?
What do you think? In this case, will the board meet its accountability responsibilities and choose the right leader for the long-term — or will the search get narrowed to fit Garden's view of the fix?
🔗 Source: Fortune Brands' New CEO Never Officially Worked a Day—But He'll Get $18.4 Million After a Massive Leadership Shakeup
