Velodyne Lidar Inc.
VLDR,
+0.69%
said Monday that Joseph Culkin will step down as chairman of the board for health reasons, but will remain an "active" director of the board. Culkin co-founded Velodyne Lidar's predecessor company, Velodyne Acoustics, and has been on Velodyne Lidar's board since September 2016. The company named board member Michael Dee as Chairman. Dee was Chief Financial Officer of Graf Industrial Corp., which was the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that Velodyne Lidar merged with in September 2020 to go public. Velodyne Lidar's stock, which rose 1.8% in premarket trading Monday, has plunged 64.9% year to date, while shares of competitor Luminar Technologies Inc.
LAZR,
-0.16%
have plummeted 45.9% and the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.13%
has gained 17.0%.