McDonald’s ‘Didn’t Dawdle’ in Firing Easterbrook, Board Member Says

(Bloomberg) -- John Rogers, co-chief executive officer of Ariel Investments, defended the McDonald’s Corp. board’s handling of the dismissal of Steve Easterbrook last year.

Rogers, a member of the McDonald’s board, said the group “didn’t dawdle” in removing the company’s CEO in November over a sexual relationship with an employee.

“This is really one of the best boards I’ve ever been engaged in when it comes to ethics,” Rogers said Wednesday at CNBC’s virtual “Delivering Alpha” conference. “We’ve listened and learned about this problem,” he said. “We got the best advice and counsel we could. We came together, and it was unanimous that this was the right thing for us to do for the company.”

McDonald’s is engaged in a legal battle with Easterbrook, attempting to claw back $37 million of stock grants, claiming he misled officials about how many subordinates he had sexual relationships with.

Chicago-based Ariel has $11.4 billion in assets under management.

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