As we continue to make meaningful progress in becoming a commercially focused rare disease therapeutics company, one of our shareholders, Daniel Mangless, is proposing the election of his three candidates for all available Board seats at Zevra's Annual Meeting of Stockholders in opposition to your Board’s nominees.
We believe that electing any of the Mangless nominees would diminish the overall quality of, and experience represented on, your Board.
John Bode’s finance experience is almost entirely within media and is duplicative of more relevant skillsets already represented on your Board. Of note, he served as a Chief Financial Officer for only four years and has not been in public accounting since 2002.
While he is the only Mangless nominee with biotech and pharmaceutical experience, Douglas Calder has no previous public company Board service. He also has a history with troubled companies, including a wind-down at the Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute of Florida, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy at BioVest International and a liquidation of assets at Viragen.
Corey Watton brings no biotech, pharmaceutical or Board experience. His finance experience at medical staffing and in-home senior care companies is wholly unrelated to Zevra’s focus on drug development and commercialization.
In addition, despite Mangless’ claim that his nominees “have no financial relationship” with him, one of the Mangless nominees appears to have a business relationship with him. Mangless is a significant shareholder in FISION Corporation (OTC: FSSN) — which has a market cap of approximately $1 million — where his nominee John Bode has been interim CEO since September 2022 and a Board member since March 2018. Mangless appears to have been a major FISION shareholder throughout Bode’s affiliation with the company and since 2017, calling into question Bode’s purported independence from Mangless.