Chairman has no future at publisher, insists City veteran

The veteran entrepreneur Sir Peter Wood, one of the largest shareholders in Future, is seeking to oust the chairman of the £1 billion publisher behind Marie Claire after the abrupt resignation of its chief executive.
Shares in Future tumbled by almost a fifth last month when the FTSE 250 company unsettled investors by announcing that Jon Steinberg, 47, was stepping down as chief executive to return to the US only 18 months after taking on the role.
Wood, the founder of Direct Line, who holds a 6.10 per cent stake in Future, according to FactSet data, has told Richard Huntingford, the chairman, that he should stand down to avoid making “another mistake” when appointing a chief executive.
Wood, 77, has also contacted other large Future shareholders in an attempt to build support and to enable a new chairman to oversee the search for a new chief executive. “They’re all a bit disappointed but one large shareholder is totally supportive of my suggestion,” said Wood, who is prepared to become interim chairman.
Future’s magazines and websites include Country Life, Homes & Gardens, The Week and Metal Hammer.
Wood said he had “run out of patience” with Huntingford, 68, after his concerns about the risks of appointing a relocating chief executive went unheeded.
He said he was also frustrated with last month’s stock market communication announcing Steinberg’s resignation, which was “completely mishandled” and “didn’t explain anything” as well as causing a share price collapse.
Future stated last month that Steinberg had informed the board of his decision to step down later next year to relocate back to the US with his family.
He received a relocation fee of up to £260,000 to help with the cost of moving from New York to London with his wife and two children when he was appointed in April last year. He has a 12-month notice period and the board has begun a search for a replacement.
Wood believes that Kevin Li Ying, executive vice-president of Future’s new B2C (business to consumer) unit, would make a “fine choice provided he was supported by an excellent chairman”. Li Ying, Future’s former chief technology and product officer, is also a consultant to SPWOne, Wood’s investment vehicle.
Steinberg had been brought in by Future to replace Zillah Byng-Thorne, who spent almost a decade at the company and oversaw its £594 million takeover of the price comparison website GoCompare. Wood was the founder investor of GoCompare and remained chairman and the largest shareholder through to its sale in 2021.
Byng-Thorne, 49, is now the chief executive of Dignity, one of Britain’s two big funeral companies, which was taken private last year for about £789 million by a consortium including SPWOne.
Analysts at Peel Hunt have said Steinberg’s exit would “cast a shadow over the investment case until a successor is found”.
Shares in Future closed down by 19.2 per cent when his planned departure was announced but have since recovered some of those losses, closing up by 21p, or 2.4 per cent, at 903p on Monday.
Steinberg is credited with overseeing a “growth acceleration strategy”, under which Future added new ways of monetising content and closed less popular titles, including Total 911 and 3D World.
A spokesman for Future said: “The board has expressed its disappointment that Jon will be departing as CEO next year, but respects his personal decision to return to the US with his family. As it did when it appointed Jon, the nomination committee will conduct a thorough search process to identify another high-calibre successor.”