For Some CEOs, a Divorce Spilled Into Corporate Realm

By Micah Maidenberg 

Divorces involving corporate leaders have been known to get messy and sometimes can have a big effect on their companies. Here are some notable separations:

-- Jack Welch, the former chief executive at General Electric Co., and his former wife, Jane Beasley, divorced in 2003. Mr. Welch sought the breakup after his affair with a Harvard Business Review editor became public. Ms. Beasley tarnished Mr. Welch's image by revealing in court papers that the couple received an array of GE retirement perks, ranging from the use of a New York apartment to free flowers, wine, dry cleaning and even vitamins. Mr. Welch wrote that the papers filed by his wife " grossly misrepresented many aspects of my employment contract with General Electric." He agreed to relinquish $2.5 million a year in perks.

-- Steve Wynn, founder of Wynn Resorts Ltd., and Elaine Wynn divorced in 2010. In 2012, the pair started fighting in court as Ms. Wynn sought to get out of a shareholder agreement, struck during the divorce proceedings, that gave Mr. Wynn voting control over her shares and restricted her ability to sell the stock. Allegations of sexual misconduct against Mr. Wynn eventually led to a settlement of that dispute and the sale of Mr. Wynn's stake, and left Ms. Wynn the company's largest individual shareholder.

--In November 2014, Sue Ann Arnall, the former wife of Oklahoma energy investor and executive Harold Hamm, was awarded $975 million in a divorce settlement after a contentious two-and-1/2-year case. Ms. Arnall initially rejected the settlement, which also included two homes, a ranch and other assets, but changed her mind. The couple had been married for 26 years.

--In 2015, Kenneth Griffin, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Citadel, settled a divorce case with Anne Dias, who previously worked as a hedge-fund manager. During divorce proceedings in Chicago, the couple made filings about private arguments, access to vacation homes and private jets. Mr. Griffin won several victories in the settlement, with Ms. Dias agreeing that a prenuptial agreement, which paid her millions of dollars, was valid.

--Lorna Wendt, the former wife of Gary Wendt, a former top executive at GE Capital, sought half of the couple's estate during divorce proceedings in the late 1990s. In 1997, a judge awarded her a package then worth more than $20 million that included some of Mr. Wendt's GE stock options and half the dividends from his restricted stockholdings.

-- Real-estate magnate Frank McCourt's divorce from his wife earlier this decade eventually led to the sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Frank fired his then-wife from her role as team president around the time that the divorce proceedings began in 2009. Their lawyers spent the next two years wrangling over ownership of the Dodgers. She relinquished her claim on the team for a widely reported $130 million settlement in 2011.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 09, 2019 16:28 ET (21:28 GMT)

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