He is, emphatically, not a dissident director.

So far, the dissident directors have been a minority on the board.

The nominees represent a marked departure from the typical slate of dissident directors, who are often friends or colleagues of the shareholders seeking change.

Finding executives comfortable in the role of dissident director remains a challenge.

One executive he approached, Mr. Seiden said, called dissident directors "disloyal to corporate America."

The lawsuit is the latest chapter in an unusual and sometimes harsh campaign by a dissident director to quash a friendly merger.

"It takes an awful lot of guts to be a dissident director," he said.

The identity of a shareholder who voted for a dissident director would be available to management.

Late last week, however, it became clear that the dissident directors didn't need to win election to achieve their stated goal.

Several of the dissident directors, appointed by the federal government, were replaced by new federal government appointees.