Business
Diligence Capital Management Urges Swift Governance and Strategic Changes to Eagle Bancorp's Board of Directors
Diligence Capital attempted to engage with Eagle Bancorp (Nasdaq: EGBN, Bethesda, MD) to enhance its board and adopt four shareholder proposals SALT LAKE
About this update from Eagle Bancorp, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Diligence Capital attempted to engage with Eagle Bancorp (Nasdaq: EGBN, Bethesda, MD) to enhance its board and adopt four shareholder proposals SALT LAKE CITY, UT, UNITED STATES, March 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Today Diligence Capital Management (“Diligence”) submitted an open letter to the Board of Directors of Eagle Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGBN; the “Bank” or the “Company”). Beginning in early October 2025, Diligence has engaged with various members of Eagle’s board and management team in an effort to take meaningful and decisive steps to restore the Company to a strong financial institution in a timely fashion. James R. Abbott, Chief Investment Officer of Diligence, stated, “We are enthusiastic about the prospects of helping to restore Eagle Bancorp to a strong financial institution; we continue to offer three board candidates that each bring expertise in turning around banks that are experiencing significant commercial real estate challenges.” Abbott continued, “In mid-October, we met with certain members of Eagle Bancorp’s board including then-Chair and CEO Susan Riel. At that time, we proposed to the board that Eagle split its Chair and CEO roles – which is considered best corporate governance practices by many shareholders, and that CEO Riel step down from the CEO seat and replace that position with someone who had extensive experience in rehabilitating banking organizations. In early November 2025, the Board began to pursue such a path by separating the Chair and CEO roles and announcing that Ms. Riel would be retiring in 2026 and that the Company has initiated a professional search for a new CEO. We were encouraged with the quick progress.” Abbott concluded, “However, we are disappointed at a lack of timely adoption of our other proposals such as adding bank turnaround expertise to the Board, expeditiously selecting a new CEO who has bank turnaround experience, and establishing a multi-year performance improvement plan that is clearly articulated to investors and to which a very substantial percentage of compensation for senior executives is tied.” In December 2025 Diligence submitted its formal notification to Eagle for an alternative slate of board members to include the aforementioned three new members that have experience in bank turnaround situations. As part of its submission, Diligence recommended a replaceme...