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Former AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson resigned from the PGA Tour’s coverage board over issues in regards to the tour’s proposed partnership with Saudi Arabia’s nationwide wealth fund, The Washington Put up reported Sunday.
The PGA Tour confirmed the resignation in a memo to its members, referring to Stephenson’s “exemplary service” for greater than 12 years.
Stephenson retired as chairman and CEO of AT&T in June 2020.
The Put up mentioned it obtained a duplicate of his letter that was dated Saturday and mentioned the tour’s framework settlement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund “is just not one which I can objectively consider or in good conscience assist, significantly in mild of the U.S. intelligence report regarding Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.”
Khashoggi, a Washington Put up contributing columnist and critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was slain on the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. U.S. intelligence concluded the crown prince doubtless permitted the killing, which the crown prince denies.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan shocked each nook of the golf world — together with his personal membership — when he introduced on June 6 a partnership with the PIF, which had paid for the rival league LIV Golf and was a part of antitrust lawsuits.
The settlement, which nonetheless requires PGA Tour board approval and is being checked out by the Justice Division, would create a for-profit firm during which the PIF, the PGA Tour and the European tour would pool their industrial enterprise and media rights.
Monahan could be the CEO and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor, could be chairman of the brand new firm. Al-Rumayyan additionally would have a seat on the PGA Tour board, although the PGA had assurances within the preliminary deal that it might all the time have a majority vote.
Stephenson mentioned he meant to resign on June 12, however then Monahan stepped away with a medical concern. Monahan introduced Friday he would return to work on July 17.
“I joined this board 12 years in the past to serve the very best gamers on this planet and to increase the virtues of sportsmanship instilled by means of the sport of golf,” Stephenson mentioned in his letter. “I hope, as this board strikes ahead, it can comprehensively rethink its governance mannequin and hold its choices open to guage different sources of capital past the present framework settlement.”
The ten-member PGA Tour board consists of 5 gamers and 5 impartial administrators. Two of them are board chairman Ed Herlihy and Jimmy Dunne, who joined Monahan in negotiating the deal over seven weeks with Al-Rumayyan.
The others are funding supervisor Mark Flaherty, a board member for Goldman Sachs, and Mary Meeker, a enterprise capitalist.
The resignation comes three days earlier than Dunne and Ron Value, the tour’s COO, are to testify earlier than a Congressional subcommittee that desires extra particulars on the partnership between the PGA Tour and the Saudi wealth fund.
In line with the tour’s bylaws, the 4 impartial administrators are to decide on who replaces Stephenson after consulting with the 5 gamers on the board and John Lindert, the PGA of America president who’s a non-voting board member.
There isn’t any time-frame to fill the spot.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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