Lionsgate has nominated Mignon Clyburn, a former commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, to its board of directors.
Lionsgate made the disclosure Tuesday afternoon as part of its filing of its proxy statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission. If confirmed at the company’s annual meeting on Sept. 15 in Vancouver, Clyburn will become the first African American executive on the board and the fourth woman on the panel.
Clyburn served as an FCC commissioner from 2009 to 2018, including as acting chair in 2013 — making her the first woman to lead the FCC. Clyburn was nominated by President Barack Obama and worked as an advocate for the FCC’s net neutrality rules, passed in 2015. She opposed the rollback of those regulations when Republicans gained a majority on the commission.
While at the FCC, she was committed to closing the digital divide and championed the modernization of the agency’s Lifeline Program, which aims at helping low-income consumers with voice and broadband service. She also opposed efforts to relax media ownership rules, and advocated for retaining rules to boost localism and opportunities for women and minorities.
Clyburn announced in April 2018, that she was stepping down from the FCC.
Clyburn is currently president of MLC Strategies, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, a position she has held since January 2019. Prior to her FCC tenure, Clyburn served 11 years on the Public Service Commission of South Carolina and worked for nearly 15 years as publisher of the Coastal Times, a Charleston weekly newspaper focused on the African American community. Clyburn is the daughter of Rep. James Clymer (D-SC).
The proxy filing also showed that CEO Jon Feltheimer’s compensation for the fiscal year that ended March 31 had increased from $6.6 million to $11.07 million, due to a $6.3 million bonus. Vice chairman Michael Burns saw compensation rise from $5.18 million to $6.37 million, thanks to a $3.15 million bonus.