August 13, 2008 5:05 PM

At Liberty Media, Evan Malone joins the fold

Liberty Media said Wednesday - at about 6:30 eastern time - that it's increasing its Liberty Capital stock repurchase plan, from $300 million to $600 million. Good news for shareholders, unless you accept some of the downsides of buybacks illustrated in this article.

It is the third and final paragraph of the news release that catches the eye. In its entirety:

Additionally, the board of directors has increased the size of the board from eight to nine members and elected Evan D. Malone, an engineering consultant, to serve as a Class I director. Mr. Malone is the son of John C. Malone, the Chairman of the board and a director of Liberty Media.

Indeed. There is no other biographical information in the Liberty release to indicate what qualifies Evan Malone to sit on the board of a multibillion-dollar corporation.

From a bit of searching, we believe this Evan Malone is the Malone in question. Like his father, he is a "Dr. Malone," with a PhD. The bio says he is a post-doctoral researcher in mechanical engineering in the Computational Synthesis Laboratory at Cornell University and is also co-creator of the "Fab@Home project," which, the bio says, "promotes the advancement of personal automated fabrication technology by freely distributing designs and software which allow anyone to build and operate their own desktop 3D printer ("fabber") system."

Liberty Media directors are not volunteers. According to the company's most recent proxy, directors get an annual fee of $52,500, plus extra cash if they serve on a board committee. In 2007, directors got an annual option grant valued at just under $86,000, and an additional option grant valued at nearly $77,000.

In Evan Malone's case, he'll also receive trips to Colorado for board meetings, which will incidentally coincide with family visits.

Posted by David Milstead at 5:05 PM | Comments (0)