The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Ignace Lahoud discussed resigning from WWE’s Board of Directors following Vince McMahon’s return to WWE earlier this year.
Both Lahoud and Man Jit Singh resigned following McMahon’s return to WWE’s Board of Directors earlier in January.
McMahon retired in July 2022 after being accused of sexual misconduct and paying hush money.
The Board of Directors launched an investigation, while Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan took over as co-CEOs.
By October 2022, WWE had disclosed $19.6 million in unrecorded payments McMahon made to settle sexual misconduct claims between 2006 and 2022.
McMahon returned six months later in January 2023 as the controlling shareholder and announced he was looking to sell the company.
The WWE Board stated that McMahon’s return “would not be prudent” during the investigation. Still, the 78-year-old billionaire exercised his majority voting power to remove certain board members, namely, JoEllen Lyons Dillon, Jeffrey R. Speed, and Alan M. Wexler.
McMahon then sold his company to Endeavor Group and WWE merged with the UFC to form TKO Group Holdings.
Lahoud said of his own exit,
“It wasn’t aligned with my way of seeing what governance is. There was a misalignment with what my values are.”
A source close to a removed board member noted,
“He’s the kind of person who expects loyalty.”
It was noted that even though the Board was doing its job by investigating McMahon, the billionaire saw it as an act of betrayal.
Another source stated the following last year,
“He said, ‘OK, do whatever you guys need to do. I’m not going to stand in your way.’ Of course, when the board said, ‘Well, you know, we think you need to step down,’ he wasn’t happy about it, but he did it.“
