A bid by two Perth businessmen to land board seats at Farooq Khan's Queste Communications has failed while shareholders vote against a name change.
Andrew Moffat and Antony Woodings were both vying for board positions at the company's annual general meeting yesterday, in an effort to introduce some independence to the board.
Poll voting results for the election of Messrs Moffat and Woodings showed that 10 million shares voted in favour of their election while 16.2 million shares voted against.
Currently Queste's board has four directors, including Mr Khan as executive chairman and managing director, while two other board members are Mr Khan's brother and brother-in-law.
Executive director Yaqoob Khan was yesterday re-elected to the board in one of two resolutions passed at the AGM. The company's remuneration report was also passed.
Other resolutions included a name change to Queste Corporation.
Mr Moffat told WA Business News that from the start, Mr Khan had sought to clamp down on the meeting, allowing only two questions for each of the resolutions at a meeting with less than 10 attendees.
Despite the election loss Mr Moffat, a former mergers and acquisitions specialist at BNP Paribas Australia, said he will continue to raise independence issues with the board along with corporate governance and the lack of liquidity in the company's shares.
Mr Moffat is also seeking to become a director in Bentley Capital, another company chaired by Mr Khan.
Bentley is holding its AGM in Sydney tomorrow.
