(SeaPRwire) – Amit Banati resigned from his CFO position at a Fortune 500 company, inked a deal to become the CEO of Fortune Brands Innovations, but never formally started the job. This week, he departed with $18.4 million in cash.
The enormous payout, intended to reimburse Banati for compensation he forfeited at his previous employer, results from a striking, and perhaps ludicrous, intersection of today’s lavish executive pay deals and campaigns by activist investors.
This is merely one element of a tumultuous week for the Deerfield, Ill.-based maker of Moen faucets, Yale locks, and Therma-Tru doors, which reported $4.5 billion in product sales last year.
On Monday, Fortune Brands acted to reset its leadership following a cooperation agreement with Garden Investment Management’s Ed Garden, an activist investor and son-in-law of prominent activist Nelson Peltz, which allows him to join the board.
However, Garden is not the sole major investor approaching Fortune Brands. In another development, Swiss asset manager Pictet Asset Management submitted a notice the day after Garden’s agreement, revealing a 7.6 million-share stake in Fortune Brands worth $493 million. This holding is twice the size of Garden’s 3.2% position. Pictet stated it is in discussions with the Fortune Brands board and management regarding long-term strategy, governance, and financial results. The filing permits Pictet to adopt more assertive tactics later.
Collectively, Garden and Pictet’s stakes account for nearly 10% of the company, but the two investors are not collaborating. Garden’s cooperation agreement prohibits him from forming or participating in any group with other shareholders or external parties. As the news emerged on Monday, Fortune Brands’ stock price decreased by 2.6%, and it has fallen 16% since the start of the year.
How it Unraveled
Banati’s $18.4 million tenure as CEO of Fortune Brands, which lasted zero days, was initiated last month and has been dramatic from the outset.
Fortune Brands declared on February 12 that Banati would succeed CEO Nicholas Fink, with a start date planned for mid-May. However, the day after the announcement—on Friday, February 13—Fortune Brands discovered that activist investor Garden had acquired a stake in the company and had privately proposed a reported slate of three new board members.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Garden felt the company should have spent more time selecting Fink’s successor and started rapidly buying shares with the intention of intervening when the CEO transition was made public. By the time Monday’s agreement between Garden’s firm and Fortune Brands was finalized, Garden’s stake was approximately 3.5 million shares, equating to about a 3% holding.
In addition to giving up the CEO role, Banati is also resigning from the Fortune Brands board of directors, where he has been a member for five years. Regarding the substantial cash payment, Fortune Brands characterizes it as a “make whole” payment for the compensation Banati relinquished at Tylenol-manufacturer Kenvue. As CFO at Kenvue, Banati had a $900,000 salary, a cash bonus, and a long-term equity grant worth $3.2 million. He also forfeited nearly 3.3 million unvested shares.
Based on the contract Banati signed with Fortune Brands in February, he retains an $8 million one-time sign-on bonus and receives accelerated vesting on $6 million in restricted stock units.
Banati is not the only executive affected by the company’s agreement with Garden. Chief financial officer Jonathan Baksht, who had been with Fortune Brands for less than a year, resigned on Monday. To succeed Baksht and Banati, former Fortune Brands CFO David Barry will serve as interim CEO while the board seeks a permanent CEO. Furthermore, Ashley George, senior vice president of business unit finance, will act as interim CFO. Barry will receive an extra $18,000 per month in addition to his $685,000 annual salary, bonus, and long-term compensation award of up to $1.67 million. George will get an additional $15,000 per month on top of her $387,130 yearly salary and other compensation, plus a $150,000 cash retention bonus.
The Garden Deal
As part of the cooperation agreement, Garden will join Fortune Brands’ compensation committee, the nominating committee, and will also sit on a CEO search committee if the board forms one to find a replacement for Banati. Fortune Brands also agreed to cover up to $2 million of Garden’s legal and advisory expenses.
In return, Garden rescinded his board nominees for the upcoming 2026 annual meeting and will limit his stake in Fortune Brands to below 9.9%. He also consented to a prohibition on initiating a proxy contest for board seats at the company.
“Fortune Brands is a company with incredible brands, advantaged market positions, and significant long-term potential,” Garden stated.
Susan Saltzbart Kilsby, chair of the Fortune Brands board, expressed gratitude to Banati.
“In dialogue with certain shareholders, we have now decided to commence a comprehensive search process, with the assistance of a leading executive search firm to identify the next CEO of Fortune Brands, and Amit has decided to step aside,” Kilsby said.
The company will also present a board declassification proposal for a shareholder vote at this year’s investor meeting, a change frequently advocated by activists that would require all board members to face election each year. Currently, three directors are elected annually on a rotating basis.
Fortune Brands postponed its full-year 2026 outlook to the first-quarter earnings call, affirming that its financials and fundamentals remain robust despite “macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds.” The company’s net sales saw a slight decrease from $4.61 billion in 2024 to $4.46 billion in 2025, while net income fell 37% from $471.9 million to $298.8 million over the same period.
A representative for Garden declined to comment. Fortune Brands directed inquiries to its public disclosures when asked for comment.
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