Shareholder activists have wildly divergent opinions on certain subjects. The question of how much a CEO must disclose about his personal health set off a debate that spanned several years as Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc., took successive medical leaves from the company, but revealed few details publicly.

It was The Wall Street Journal that revealed that Jobs had a liver transplant in 2009, months after the surgery occurred.

The SEC encourages companies to disclose succession plans, and journalists should ask about them when a top executive takes a sudden leave of absence. Aside from health, other reasons for abrupt CEO departures may be a rupture with the board or an offer from a rival company.

Succession plans for the future leadership of a company are particularly important for family-owned companies (see Chapter 4). The age of the founder should prompt sharp questions on future succession.

In 2011, perhaps prompted by the Jobs situation, a number of shareholder proposals requested that boards publicize their succession plans. Activists argued that if a chief executive’s illness could affect the future prospects of the company, the board has a duty to disclose it.

Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said informa¬tion about top management’s health problems should be divulged.

If I have any serious illness, or something coming up of an important nature such as an operation or anything like that, I think the thing to do is just tell Berkshire shareholders about it. I work for them,” Buffett said in comments to Stanford University’s Closer Look for an article on the topic.