Benefitfocus Provides Corporate Update and Announces Governance Enhancements
January 26 2021 - 4:40PM
Benefitfocus, Inc. (NASDAQ: BNFT), an industry-leading benefits
technology platform that simplifies benefits administration for
employers, health plans and brokers, today provides an update on
the corporate initiatives undertaken over the past year to maximize
operational efficiencies and unlock long-term shareholder value.
These initiatives include strengthening the company’s balance
sheet, enhancing its leadership team, driving increased
profitability, investing in customer-led product development, and
improving the customer experience through a performance-driven
culture.
“Our team is executing on these important initiatives including
our obsession with delivering an exceptional customer experience,”
said Steve Swad, president and chief executive officer. “The
success of our recent open enrollment season is a shining example
of how good things happen when you put the customer at the center
of everything you do. I’m proud of our accomplishments to date, and
we have only just begun to deliver on our commitment to increase
shareholder value.”
The company is also making significant board leadership changes
and governance enhancements as part of its ongoing efforts to
broaden and diversify its board of directors. Effective
immediately, independent director Zeynep Young will succeed Barry
Libert as BuildGroup’s director designee serving on the
Benefitfocus board.
In addition, the board is making a number of other changes to
its composition, all of which will be effective at the June 2021
Annual Meeting of Stockholders:
- Doug Dennerline, who has served on the Benefitfocus board of
directors since 2014, will become independent chairman of the
board.
- Mason Holland will transition to chairman emeritus, a board
advisory role, after 20 years of service as a company co-founder
and executive chairman. He will not stand for re-election as a
director.
- Given the appointment of an independent chair, Lanham Napier
will no longer serve as lead independent director. He will stand
for re-election to the board as an independent director.
- The company has retained Egon Zehnder, a global executive
search firm, to identify and evaluate additional board candidates
to enhance and accelerate the company’s strategy and further
increase diversity on the board.
Both Dennerline and Young will bring valuable insights and
extensive industry experience to their new roles on the
Benefitfocus board. Dennerline is CEO of BetterWorks Systems, and
over the last several years, he has served on the audit,
compensation and nominating and governance committees of the
Benefitfocus board. Young, who has founded and scaled multiple
technology and data companies, is expected to bring fresh
perspectives and relevant expertise as a business executive and
entrepreneur.
Mason Holland said, “Following extensive engagement with
BuildGroup and other shareholders, we are excited to announce the
appointments of two independent and highly qualified executives to
new roles on the board. Over the past 20 years, Benefitfocus has
developed the industry-leading benefits management platform, which
solves critical needs for employers and health plans. As a company
founder and continuing major shareholder, I am confident that the
company is poised to drive market leadership, deliver superior
financial results and enhance shareholder value. I look forward to
supporting the board, management and talented team at Benefitfocus
as the company begins an exciting new chapter.”
In addition to making substantive changes to its composition and
leadership roles, the board of directors has approved the following
additional actions to further enhance the company’s governance:
- The company will submit a proposal at the June 2021 Annual
Meeting of Stockholders to declassify the board and provide for the
annual election of directors; and
- The board will implement a majority voting standard that would
require that directors standing for election receive more votes in
favor than against.
Additional information about these changes can be found in a
Form 8-K that the company will file with the Securities and
Exchange Commission shortly.
About Doug DennerlineDoug Dennerline has served
as a member of the Benefitfocus board of directors since August
2014. He is chief executive officer and executive chairman of
BetterWorks Systems, Inc. From January 2013 to March 2018, he was
chief executive officer of Alfresco Software, Inc. Previously, he
was president and a director of SuccessFactors, Inc. Prior to
joining SuccessFactors, Dennerline was executive vice president of
sales, Americas and EMEA for Salesforce.com, Inc. and formerly
served as a general manager and senior executive for over 10 years
at Webex, after its acquisition by Cisco. Dennerline holds a B.S.
in business administration from Arizona State University.
About Zeynep YoungZeynep Young was CEO of
Calytera, a Texas-based government technology company, which was
acquired in November 2020, by Granicus, Inc. Previously, she was a
venture partner at Next Coast Ventures LLC, which she joined in
March of 2017. Young was also the founder and CEO of Double Line,
Inc., a data management and services company focused on the
education and government verticals. She founded Double Line in 2009
and built the company into a leader within the K-12 education
sector. She led Double Line to a successful exit in 2016. Young
began her career at McKinsey & Company in 1997, where she
advanced to associate principal. At McKinsey & Company, she was
one of the leaders in the global technology practice, with a focus
on revenue growth strategies. Young received her MBA from
Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and her B.A.
from Rice University.
About BenefitfocusBenefitfocus (NASDAQ: BNFT)
unifies the entire benefits industry through innovative technology
solutions that bring efficiency, cost savings and simplicity to
employee benefits administration. Our powerful cloud-based
software, data-driven insights and thoughtfully designed services
help employers, insurance brokers, health plans and
suppliers address the complexity of benefits enrollment and
engagement, while bringing easier access to health, wealth and
lifestyle products through a world-class benefits experience. Our
mission is simple: to improve lives with benefits. Learn more
at www.benefitfocus.com, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Contact: Benefitfocus,
Inc.843-981-8898pr@benefitfocus.com
Investor Relations:Patti
Leahy843-981-8899patti.leahy@benefitfocus.com
Forward Looking StatementsExcept for historical
information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions
contained in this press release are forward-looking statements.
Actual results or performance might differ materially from those
explicit or implicit in the forward-looking statements. Important
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
include: our ability to maintain our culture and recruit, integrate
and retain qualified personnel, including on our board of
directors; our ability to compete effectively; the need to innovate
and provide useful products and services; risks related to changing
healthcare and other applicable regulations; the immature and
volatile nature of the market for our products and services;
privacy; security and other risks associated with our business;
management of growth; risks related to the evolving COVID-19
pandemic; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in
our SEC filings, copies of which are available free of charge
within the Investor Relations section of the Benefitfocus website
at http://investor.benefitfocus.com/sec-filings or upon request
from our investor relations department. Benefitfocus assumes no
obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking
statements, except as required by law.
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