Oasis is paying former Disney CEO Bob Chapek $100,000 a month to serve as its nominee to the Vail Resorts board, a retainer that equals $1.2 million a year and sits at the center of a proxy fight the ski resort operator now wants ended.

Vail Resorts' board is recommending that shareholders reject all four Oasis nominees at the upcoming vote, citing Chapek's pay among its concerns, the company said in its proxy materials.

How much is Chapek being paid?

The dissident investor's arrangement pays Chapek $100,000 every month, or roughly $3,300 per day, for his candidacy. Annualized, the fee reaches $1.2 million before any outcome is decided.

For context: the median US household earns about $75,000 a year. Chapek's monthly nominee fee exceeds that figure on its own within roughly three weeks.

Vail's board flagged the compensation as a governance red flag, arguing it raises questions about the independence of a director candidate who stands to collect a steady income stream from the investor backing his nomination.

Who is Bob Chapek?

Chapek ran the Walt Disney Company as chief executive from 2020 until his ouster in November 2022, when the board replaced him with returning chief executive Bob Iger. His roughly two-year tenure covered the pandemic recovery of the parks business and the launch of Disney+ growth that later stalled.

Oasis has put him forward as one of four nominees seeking seats on Vail Resorts' board, a slate the company's incumbent directors now oppose in full.

What does the recommendation change?

The board's formal recommendation sets up a straight up-or-down contest for shareholders: keep the current directors, or elect all or part of the Oasis slate — with Chapek's $100,000-a-month retainer now part of the record before the vote.

Vail's directors cited that pay among their reasons. The company's position, in effect, is that a nominee under contract to an activist investor cannot act as an independent fiduciary for all shareholders.

Oasis has not disputed the payment figure in the disclosures to date, according to the proxy contest record.

Why does the pay matter to governance?

Compensation for activist-nominated directors is a recurring flashpoint in proxy fights. Investors weigh whether a candidate paid by the sponsor of a campaign can be counted on to challenge that sponsor once seated.

At $1.2 million a year, Chapek's arrangement is large by the standards of public-company director fees. Standard board retainers at large US companies typically run in the low six figures annually, not monthly — meaning the nominee fee can run several times what a sitting director earns for the actual board work.

Vail's board is asking shareholders to draw the obvious inference: a nominee collecting $100,000 a month from Oasis has a sponsor to answer to before he answers to them.

The shareholders decide the rest.