Sumner Redstone trust shakeup: New members are allies of mogul’s daughter
Sumner M. Redstone’s trust has two newly minted trustees who are expected to replace the media mogul’s two long-time advisors, Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman and attorney George Abrams.
The ailing media tycoon, through a spokesman, announced Tuesday that Thaddeus Jankowski and Jill Krutick are replacing Dauman and Abrams on the powerful irrevocable trust, which eventually will make decisions about Redstone’s controlling shares in Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp.
Both Jankowski and Krutick are allies of the mogul’s daughter, Shari Redstone. There are seven members of the Sumner M. Redstone National Amusements Inc. Trust, and Tuesday’s additions to the group have considerable financial and legal credentials.
Jankowski is executive vice president and general counsel of National Amusements, the Redstone family firm that also includes a movie theater chain. He is intimately knowledgeable about the business affairs of the Redstone family’s Boston-based business, working for the family for 35 years.
He was a key figure in Shari Redstone’s efforts to expand the National Amusements cinemas. At National Amusements, Jankowski reports directly to Shari Redstone.
Krutick is a former Wall Street equity analyst, spending 15 years at the brokerage firm Salomon Smith Barney, covering Viacom and other media companies. She more recently served as senior vice president for investor relations at Warner Music Group, leading communications with Wall Street analysts and investors.
She has a second career as an abstract impressionist artist, the statement said.
Tuesday’s move follows Redstone’s removal late Friday of Dauman and Abrams from their roles as trustees and directors of National Amusements Inc.
National Amusements is the vehicle that holds the Redstone family’s nearly 80% of the voting shares of CBS and Viacom.
The appointments had been expected. And the timing is important: Because the Sumner M. Redstone National Amusements Inc. Trust is an irrevocable trust, changes needed to be made before Redstone dies or becomes incapacitated.
After that time, no changes can be legally made to the structure of the trust.
Abrams and Dauman filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts courts on Monday to try to block the changes from taking effect. In the suit, Abrams and Dauman charged that Shari Redstone is manipulating her father to make changes that will give her a clear path to control the two media companies.
Redstone struggles to speak, and during a deposition earlier this month, he did not answer when asked to provide his given name, which is Sumner Murray Rothstein.
“This is my trust and my decision,” Redstone said Tuesday, according to the statement. “I have picked those who are loyal to me and removed those who are not.”
The statement also said Shari Redstone’s daughter, Kimberlee Korff Ostheimer, has been elected to the board of directors for National Amusements Inc., alongside her mother.
Ostheimer is a lawyer who practiced at the Legal Aid Society before leaving the work world to care for her children. She is a 2004 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and received her law degree at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 2008. Her husband, Jason Ostheimer, co-runs Advancit Capital, Shari Redstone’s investment group.
“I am honored to be named as a fourth generation director and look forward to contributing to the continued success of the company my family has built over the last 80 years,” Kimberlee Ostheimer said in the statement.
She is one of seven beneficiaries of the Sumner M. Redstone Trust, along with her siblings, two cousins and her two young children.
Jankowski and Krutick also will serve as directors to the National Amusements board.
MORE REDSTONE:
Viacom board scraps pay for Sumner Redstone
Battle for Viacom: Sumner Redstone, 92, moves to oust men he picked as trustees
Judge dismisses mental competency case against Sumner Redstone
Attorneys for Sumner Redstone’s ex-girlfriend say he was probably brainwashed
Sumner Redstone says his former girlfriends received $150 million from him
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