A billionaire who is a major Biden donor is at risk of being ousted as CEO of the technology company he founded, citing “serious concerns” about his performance, the Post reports. Ta.
Joe Chiani could be fired as CEO and chairman of medical device company Masimo by July. Activist hedge funds accused him of failing to properly manage the company, causing its stock price to plummet, and even not disclosing its annual budget.
The company gave Kiani, 59, an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion According to Forbes And in 2020, he became the highest paid CEO in the healthcare industry with $222.5 million in funding. He donated millions of dollars to the Democratic Party that year.
Kiani calls the president. “My dear friend” Biden hugs him on stage and offers Biden’s troubled niece, Caroline, a convicted larceny, a job at the company to meet the terms of her probation. I even did it.
Biden appointed Kiani to the President’s Council of Science and Technology Advisers in 2021, giving him a strong platform.
And, as well as large donations to PACs supporting the Biden campaign, as well as the Obama and Clinton Foundations, Chiani’s Massimo Foundation also funds the anti-Israel radical group Jewish Voice for Peace, which is personally funding campus protests. The Post reported that he donated $40,000 to “.
Now, hedge fund Politan Capital Management is calling on shareholders to vote him off the board of directors, where he is chairman, condemning the series of failures.
Masimo has previously defended Chiani, issuing a statement in April saying his firing would be “against the interests of our shareholders and the hundreds of millions of patients who rely on Masimo’s innovations.” .
A spokesperson for Kiani defended his accomplishments and the foundation’s donations to the Post, saying, “Thirty-five years ago, Joe Kiani focused on improving people’s lives and helping those in need.” Established a company.
“The Foundation’s giving reflects these values, and the Foundation is proud to support so many organizations with the same goals.
“He has raised and donated millions of dollars to anti-hate organizations around the world, including multiple organizations combating anti-Semitism.”
Masimo, which specializes in medical devices that check patient health data such as brain activity and blood oxygen levels, has seen its stock price plummet from $303 in November 2021 to just over $120 today.
Last year alone, the company’s stock price fell 34%, while the shares of rivals Stryker and Globus rose about 12% at the same time.
Politan has amassed a 9% stake in the $7.1 billion company. Higher than Kiani’s 8.5%holds two of the six seats on the board and is currently asking shareholders to give it two more seats. For re-election — one of which is Kiani’s.
That would allow Mr. Politan to remove Mr. Chiani as CEO with a majority of the board seats. Mr. Politan, he claims, is responsible for Masimo’s stock price decline.
“Joe Kiani has refused to provide us with basic information, denied us access to management, held repeated board meetings from which we have been excluded, and refused to allow us to review capital allocation or strategy. They refused to even consider it,” Politan’s managing director said. Quentin Coffey claimed The statement added: “Given the basic lack of governance and oversight we observed, Politan is deeply concerned.”
Shareholders will vote in July on whether Mr. Chiani will retain his seat on the board and, by implication, as CEO.
Firing Mr. Kiani from Mr. Masimo would close off the Iranian-born entrepreneur’s cash cow, which Mr. Kiani has used as a donor to the Democratic Party, but which would generate $600 million if Mr. Kiani is fired. There is a golden parachute in the contract.
Kiani has earned hundreds of millions of dollars from Masimo in recent years, including $222.5 million in 2020, $52.7 million in 2021, and $16.5 million in 2022.
Last month, he borrowed an undisclosed amount using $660 million worth of stock as security for “family reasons,” according to a recent filing. CNBC reported.
Kiani spent $50 million on an 8,000-acre vineyard in Santa Barbara, California, where he hosted Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen last April.
In 2010, he founded the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare, of which he serves as chairman.
Closely intertwined with Masimo. The company’s chief financial officer is the nonprofit’s treasurer, its general counsel is the foundation’s secretary, and one of the foundation’s directors is Kiani’s wife, Sarah.
Most of the Masimo Foundation’s grants go to medical nonprofits, but it gave $4.7 million to the Clinton Foundation from 2015 to 2018.
From 2011 to 2023, he donated $2 million to the Barack Obama Foundation and $1.6 million to foundations associated with Joe Biden, including the Beau Biden Foundation and the Biden Cancer Initiative.
Kiani’s personal donations include $750,000 to Biden’s 2020 PAC, Unite the Country, and $250,000 to the 2022 Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund.
His relationship with the Biden family is both personal and financial.
Emails and text messages found on Hunter’s laptop show that in July 2018, Kiani offered Caroline Biden an $85,000-a-year job in Los Angeles using a stolen credit card. It would have allowed her to meet the terms of her probation. She turned it down, scoffing that it was “less than her minimum wage.”
And Kiani’s daughter Catherine worked as an intern for First Lady Jill Biden and greeted guests at the French president’s state dinner in 2022. Mr. Emmanuel Macron, who was also attended by Mr. and Mrs. Kiani.
Kiani is also at war with Apple. He filed three lawsuits against the company, alleging that Apple stole patented technology that measures blood oxygen and used it in the latest Apple Watch.
The Biden administration supported his successful effort to have some Apple Watch sales banned by the U.S. International Trade Commission. The company decided to stop monitoring blood oxygen levels to allow sales to continue and appealed the ban.
