Activist: New board would help United CE succeed

After activist hedge funds nominated potential directors for United Continental's board earlier this week, the founder of one of the firms says that move is intended to help its CE, Oscar Munoz, not hinder him. "First and foremost…we have tremendous admiration for Oscar...We are supportive of Oscar," said Brad Gerstner, CE and founder of Altimeter, Thursday. "Our first response is not to launch an activist campaign. Some people have called us 'reluctavists,'" he added. Altimeter and PAR Capital announced earlier this month that they would be nominating 6 director candidates to the board. The firms have previously described United's response to shareholder discontent as "knee-jerk," referencing how the airline tapped 3 new board members and expanded the size of the board after Altimeter and PAR announced their campaign. <br/>