Meanwhle, Hewitt, who controls the company through his ownership of Class B shares, reappointed Thomas Herskovits to the board immediately. Herskovits served on the board from October 2015 until November 2017 when he was one of two directors Hewitt removed from the board. Herskovits fills a vacancy created when the company increased the number of Class B directors.
Bates had served as VP of finance at Liberty starting in October 2015. He replaced Kathleen Donovan, who resigned in November despite being one of four executives awarded retention bonuses after Hewitt’s termination.
Hewitt was fired after an investigation by an outside law firm said it appeared he had been heard having sex in his office and had favored women with whom he had romantic relationships. After Hewitt removed two board members, Donovan left while KPMG resigned as outside auditor, citing what it called the “tone at the top” of the company.
KMPG’s departure left the company unable to file the two quarterly financial reports and Liberty received notices of a possible delisting by Nasdaq. Last month, Liberty hired Carr Riggs & Ingramas auditor and said it would file the overdue results as soon as practicable.
Hewitt last fall had used his control of Class B shares to remove two members of the board of directors and replace them with allies. That triggered the departure of Donovan and other board members with Hewitt replacing the board members with allies. In February, the board fired Ed Brunot, who was been promoted from COO to CEO to replace Hewitt in September. Brunot was replaced by Nicole Ossenfort, who Hewitt had placed on the board. The new officers dumped the law firm the investigated Hewitt's behavior.
After other directors retired, Liberty also received a notice of possible delisting because it did not have independent members on the board’s audit committee.
Herskovits was named chair of the compensation and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees and was also appointed to the audit committee.
