Team Financial, Inc. Appoints New Director; Vows to Defeat Dissident Shareholder's Sour Grapes Proxy Solicitation for Board Seats
ppointment of
Robert M. Blachly to fill a vacant Board of Directors
seat, and that, as set forth in the Company's recent definitive proxy
material, Mr. Blachly will serve as a nominee to the Board at the annual
meeting of shareholders to be held on
Tuesday, June 17th.
Mr. Blachly, age 58, has served as a director of our primary bank
subsidiary, TeamBank, N.A. since August 2006, and continues to serve in that
capacity, having recently been appointed to a special committee to oversee
loan administration and credit risk. He has also served as a member of the
board loan committee. He is Executive Vice President of The Industrial
Fumigant Company, Olathe, Kansas, a multimillion dollar international supplier
of food plant sanitization and consulting services, where he has served in
various progressive capacities since 1976. He chaired its ESOP Committee from
1991 to 2005. Mr. Blachly is a graduate of the University of Kansas, B.S.,
Business Administration. His expertise in a growing and profitable company
and his experience with an employee ownership plan will add to the strength
and depth of our Board.
Mr. Blachly fills the seat of dissident shareholder, Keith B. Edquist, who
resigned from the Board on May 20th in order to solicit proxies to seat his
own slate of three Board members at the Company's upcoming annual meeting.
We believe Mr. Edquist's solicitation is a 'sour grapes' attempt to obtain
Board seats, as our Nominating Committee, consisting entirely of independent
members, determined earlier this year that a highly qualified Board candidate,
Mr. Blachly, should be nominated to serve instead of any other candidate. The
Company believes Mr. Edquist and his hand-picked slate of two other nominees
would not result in an increase in shareholder value and their presence on the
Board would not be in the best interests of shareholders. Among other things,
during the time Mr. Edquist served on the Board, he was generally
uncooperative and antagonistic with the other Board members and our employees.
The Company recently rejected an offer by Mr. Edquist to purchase one of our
Nebraska bank branches because of the negative impact to the Company's
shareholders.
Mr. Edquist's proxy soliciation expresses concern about the Company's
executive pay practices. He has not disclosed that while on our Compensation
Committee he was integral to reviewing our executives' compensation and in
late 2005 led the approval of an executive employment and salary package for
the then chief financial officer which was identical in material form to the
compensation package offered to the CEO.
