Adelphia Communications Corp. said it has completed the transition to a new board of directors with the departure of former board members Dennis Coyle and Erland "Erkie" Kailbourne.
As a result, Yale Law School Dean Anthony Kronman has been elected by the board to serve as lead director. Kronman has been an Adelphia director since August 2002.
Philip Lochner, former senior vice president and chief administrative officer of Time Warner Inc., has been elected to head Adelphia’s corporate-governance committee, which was formerly led by Kronman.
"We are grateful to Dennis Coyle and Erkie Kailbourne for the conscientious stewardship that has brought us to this point in our progress, including Erkie’s dedicated efforts as interim CEO," Adelphia chairman and CEO William Schleyer said in a prepared statement.
"Adelphia now has a board with tremendous depth and breadth of experience in corporate governance, finance and the cable-television industry," Schleyer added. "The company has taken critical steps to restore its reputation, and we are in an excellent position to move forward with plans to emerge from Chapter 11 later this year and operate as a strong, vital and independent organization."
The remaining members of Adelphia’s board of directors are: former Time Warner Cable programming CEO and Time Warner Inc. chief financial officer E. Thayer Bigelow; former Renaissance Cable vice chairman Rod Cornelius; former Federal Communications Commission member Susan Ness; Schleyer; and former Hershey Foods Corp. chairman Kenneth L. Wolfe
Coyle and Kailbourne had announced their intention to step down in June. The two were the last remaining members who had served under Adelphia’s former management -- chairman John Rigas, chief financial officer Timothy Rigas and executive VP of operations Michael Rigas.
The Rigases resigned in May 2002 and were indicted on federal fraud charges in September of that year. The federal trial against the Rigases and former Adelphia director of internal reporting Michael Mulcahey is scheduled to begin Feb. 23 in Manhattan.
