Overstock has board changes

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 5/3/2004 12:00:00 AM

SALT LAKE CITY —

Gordon Macklin has been re-elected and insurance industry veteran Jack Byrne has been elected to the Overstock.com board of directors. The board also appointed Byrne to the position of vice chairman.

Macklin has been an Overstock.com director since October 1999 and was up for re-election this year. He is a former president of the National Association of Securities Dealers, and previously served as chairman of Hambrecht & Quist and CEO of White River Corporation. Macklin serves as a director for Martek Biosciences Corporation, MedImmune, Inc., White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd., and is a director, trustee or managing general partner of 48 of the investment companies in the Franklin Templeton Group of Funds.

Byrne recently retired as chairman of White Mountain Insurance Group and Montpelier Re, and is a former CEO of White Mountain Insurance Group, GEICO and Fireman's Fund. He served as an Overstock.com director from October 1999 until October 2002 when he and two other directors resigned to give independent directors a majority.

As the father of Patrick Byrne, president and chairman of Overstock.com, Jack Byrne is not considered an independent director. However, with his return to the Overstock.com board, effective last week, three independent directors continue to hold a majority of the company's five-member board, stated Overstock.