Parkland's Largest Shareholder Makes a Case for Change
CALGARY, Alberta — Parkland Corp.'s largest shareholder Simpson Oil Ltd. is seeking significant changes to leadership ahead of the company's 2025 Annual General Meeting on May 6.
In a letter to Parkland shareholders, Simpson announced its intention to nominate nine new people for election to Parkland's board and outlined its motivations.
Simpson, which holds 19.8% of outstanding common shares of Parkland, alleged a persistent track record of financial underperformance, strategic missteps and sustained destruction of shareholder value overseen by Parkland's current board. It stated that Parkland's total shareholder return has "collapsed" since 2019, underperforming its peers by 85.7%.
The letter also stated that although it was granted two board seats in 2023, Simpson's nominees were deliberately excluded from key discussions and denied any real influence.
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According to Simpson, replacing incumbent board members with its nine nominations would hold the board accountable for "consistently quashing dissent, ignoring shareholders, failing at management succession and planning, lacking transparency, blocking value creation opportunities and enabling a CEO whose undisciplined M&A strategy, poor integrations, and runaway spending have driven operational and strategic failure."
Simpson nominees include:
- Monty Baker, former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and former director at Stelco Holdings Inc.
- Michael Christiansen, investment manager at the Simpson Group and a representative of the nominating shareholder
- Mark Davis, former president and CEO of Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund
- Jackie Doak, director of Dart Enterprises Ltd
- Chris Folan, former managing director, global investment banking of CIBC
- Brian Gibson, retired senior investment executive and current board chair of the Investment Management Corp. of Ontario
- Marc Halley, investment manager at the Simpson Group and a representative of the nominating shareholder
- Darcy Morris, the cofounder and CEO of Ewing Morris & Co. Investment Partners
- Karen Stuckey, former senior vice president, merchandising of Walmart Inc. and current director at Gildan Activewear Inc
Simpson's full letter and information on its priorities are available at www.refuelparkland.com.
Parkland Responds
In a press release, Parkland dismissed Simpson's slate of nominees as "a self-interested attempt by Simpson, a minority shareholder, to seize full control of Parkland without paying a control premium."
The company noted that it has welcomed Simpson representatives to rejoin the board numerous times and invited them to participate in the special committee overseeing the strategic review of Parkland's future. It added that it is "disappointing" that Simpson chose an adversarial approach instead of constructive engagement.
First announced in March, Parkland plans to explore opportunities to maximize value creation through a review of strategic alternatives that could include asset divestments, acquisitions, transformative business combinations and a sale of the company, as Convenience Store News previously reported.
"Many members of the Simpson slate lack credibility and relevant experience to meet the standards required to govern a public company of Parkland's scale and complexity," said Michael Jennings, chair of Parkland's board. "However, in the interest of resolution and collaboration with Simpson, Parkland has selected three of Simpson's nominees who meet Parkland's governance standards and propose to include one of the Simpson nominees on the special committee overseeing the strategic review. Simpson nominees Brian Gibson and Karen Stuckey bring skills that are expected to be additive to our board. Michael Christiansen brings valuable perspective, as he works for Simpson directly and was previously a nominee of Simpson on the Parkland board."
Parkland shared its own proposed slate of 13 directors it believe will best serve shareholders as an experienced and diversely skilled board: Felipe Bayon, Nora Duke, Bob Espey, Sue Gove, Tim Hogarth, Richard Hookway, Angela John, Michael Jennings, James Neate, Mariame McIntosh Robinson, Karen Stuckey, Brian Gibson and Michael Christiansen.
The company also announced the appointment of Brad Monaco as permanent chief financial officer of Parkland, effective immediately.
Calgary-based Parkland Corp. is an independent supplier and marketer of fuel and petroleum products and a convenience store operator. Parkland currently services customers across Canada, the United States, the Caribbean region and the Americas through three channels: retail, commercial and wholesale.