Hightower Lowdown

Jamie Coulter is the multimillionaire
chairman and
CEO of the national restaurant
chain, Lone Star
Steakhouse & Saloon, Inc.
He also maintains a seat on
his corporation’s board of
directors, a common management
play that allows
him to keep a tight rein on
his board members and
keep things running his way.
Or, rather, he had a seat on
the board until Guy Adams
started agitating.
Adams, a stockholder
with barely a thousand
shares (compared to five
million owned by Coulter)
was mad as hell, not only
because Lone Star has
been performing poorly
under Coulter, but also
because top management
lavished fat benefits on
itself. Last year, for example,
while Lone Star’s earnings
dropped 15%, Coulter
tripled his own pay.
Adams upped and ran for
the board seat held by CEO
Coulter. He might have gotten
nowhere, except for
Coulter’s incredible arrogance.
The CEO unleashed
operatives to go after this
agitator, combing through
his phone and credit card
records, questioning his
landlord, rummaging though
court records of his divorce.
Lone Star even sued
Adams, charging that he’d
spread false tales about
management incompetence.
But Adams wasn’t the
only shareholder unhappy
with Coulter’s corporate performance,
and they were
now also appalled by
Coulter’s egregious personal
performance.
So the maverick Adams
has dumped the Lone Star
chief off the board. Three
cheers for citizen agitators!