The Green Bay Packers will present four candidates for shareholder vote at July’s Annual
Meeting to join the Packers Board of Directors: Michael Barber, James Christensen, Eddie
Garcia and Chris Woleske.
The candidate information will be included in proxy information being sent in June to more
than 360,000 shareholders in advance of the Annual Meeting, set for Monday, July 26, at 11
a.m. in Lambeau Field. The four candidates were approved by vote of the organization’s
Board of Directors at its quarterly meeting held this week.
Barber is the Chief Diversity Officer for General Electric and based in Milwaukee.
Christensen is President and CEO of Green Bay-based Wisconsin Plastics Inc. Garcia is
Senior Director of Business Development at Oshkosh Defense and also is a former Packers
placekicker, having played in Green Bay from 1983-84. Woleske is President and CEO of
Bellin Health.
“We’re really excited about this year’s class and are delighted to present them for shareholder
vote,” said Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy. “Each of them brings excellent experience
and perspective to their role with the Packers. I look forward to working with them on the
Board.”
The shareholders meeting also will see five members take on emeritus status:
Nancy Armbrust (originally elected in 2018), Thomas Arndt (1992), Ricardo Diaz (2012),
Thomas Olson (2015) and John Skoug (2012). Both Olson and Skoug have served on the
Executive Committee, since 2012 and 2018, respectively, with Olson also serving as Vice
President and Lead Director since 2015.
“We thank all directors for their valuable contributions during their tenure on the Board,”
Murphy said. “Both Tom and John have made important contributions to our Executive
Committee.
“Tom’s leadership over the past six years as our Lead Director has been tremendous. He has
been a key contributor to our success on and off the field.”
Proposed to succeed Olson and Skoug on the Executive Committee are Marcia Anderson
and Karl Schmidt.
Anderson, originally elected to the Board in 2016, served more than 35 years in the Army
Reserve, rising to the rank of major general, becoming the first African American woman to
achieve that position. She served in a number of senior leadership roles, concluding her
service as Deputy Chief, Army Reserve, at the Pentagon prior to her retirement. Outside of
the Army, she served over 30 years with the Federal Courts, finishing her career as the Clerk
of Court for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of Wisconsin. Now retired
from the clerk of courts, she serves in leadership roles on the boards of directors for several
Wisconsin organizations, as well as a U.S. Department of Defense committee that reports to
the Secretary of Defense.
Schmidt, originally elected to the Board in 2017, is president and CEO of Belmark Inc., a De
Pere, Wis., company that is a converter of pressure-sensitive labels, printed flexible
packaging, and folding cartons. Prior to joining Belmark in 1994, he served in a leadership
role at Gaylord Container. He is chairperson of the Audit Committee. He also serves on the
boards of directors of AMERCO, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and Bellin Health.
“We are excited to have Marcia and Karl become members of our Executive Committee,”
Murphy said. “Marcia has extensive military and legal experience that will be helpful to us.
She’s extremely active in the Madison community and will be the first Executive Committee
member from Madison. Karl’s work in leading Belmark has been impressive, and he has also
done an excellent job as Chair of the Audit Committee. Both will be great additions to the
Executive Committee.”
In addition, Susan Finco is proposed to succeed Olson as the corporation’s Vice President
and Lead Director. Finco has been a member of the Board since 2000 and a member of the
Executive Committee since 2015, and also serves on the Director Affairs, Packers Foundation
and Personnel & Compensation Committees. The proposed changes will be taken up at the
Board’s August meeting.
“I’m looking forward to working with Susan as Lead Director,” Murphy said. “She brings
great leadership and experience to the position, particularly in public relations.”
Shareholders will be provided four Annual Meeting tickets for each Shareholder account,
including accounts that have a joint or custodial registration. Shareholders receiving meeting
materials electronically will be able to access print-at-home tickets upon voting their shares.
As pandemic conditions continue to change, any COVID-19 protocols for the meeting will be
finalized and posted on packers.com and packersowner.com as the meeting date nears.
Attendees are asked to be prepared to wear masks and sit in a socially distanced manner if
that is the guidance from local medical and health experts at the time of the meeting.
Information about the Annual Meeting, which will be updated as the date approaches, also
can be found online at packers.com/community/shareholders or packersowner.com.
The Packers also are asking shareholders who have not received any communications from
the organization in the last 12 months to contact Shareholder Services to update their
address, including street and email addresses. Shareholder Services can be reached via
telephone at 855-8GO-PACK (855-846-7225) or email at shareholderservices@packers.com.
Information is also online at packersowner.com.
Article originally published on packers.com on May 12, 2021 and written by Evan Siegle.