Velodyne Founder Responds to Board Decision

BusinessWire: David Hall, who with Marta Thoma Hall holds voting control of approximately 58.4% of the outstanding common stock of Velodyne Lidar, Inc. issued the following statement in response to the Company’s February 22, 2021 announcement:

“As Board members and large stockholders, Marta and I have acted ethically and tirelessly to advance the best interests of Velodyne Lidar. We presided over years of growth and success that ultimately laid the groundwork for Velodyne Lidar to go public via a reverse merger in 2020. Since Anand Gopalan assumed the Chief Executive Officer role early last year, I have stepped back from day-to-day management and offered strategic perspectives when appropriate. I ultimately relinquished my Executive Chairman position in favor of simply serving as Chairman once it became clear this winter that Mr. Gopalan and others preferred to continuously ignore my input in favor of implementing their own agenda.

Marta and I firmly believe that the boardroom ambush that took place on February 19, 2021 is an affront to stockholders that undermines corporate democracy. The Board’s rash decision to censure us based on an opaque, secret investigation into baseless, unfounded claims simply reveals that the Company’s governance is broken. Moreover, stripping us of our respective positions – without justification – after many years of success appears more like an internal power grab than a pro-stockholder action. We are committed to righting these wrongs in the weeks ahead and plan to communicate substantive updates in the near-term.”