eBay this week announced the appointment of two new independent directors in anticipation of completing its previously announced separation of eBay and PayPal. Tony Bates, President of GoPro, and Gail McGovern, president and CEO of the American Red Cross, have been appointed to eBay's board of directors.

eBay also announced that current directors William Ford and Richard Schlosberg, who have served for 10 years and 11 years, respectively, have advised the company that they do not plan to stand for re-election to the board at the 2015 Annual Meeting. With the appointment of Bates and McGovern, eBay's board currently is comprised of 17 directors, 15 of whom are independent. Following the company’s Annual Meeting, which will be held on May 1, eBay’s board will be comprised of 15 directors, 13 of whom will be independent.

Additionally, eBay announced that Jonathan Christodoro has been elected to its board as part of the previously announced standstill agreement with Carl Icahn, the company’s largest active shareholder. eBay's full slate of director nominations are included in its 2015 proxy statement, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week and submitted for shareholder approval at the 2015 Annual Meeting.

Separately, the company noted that it continues to make solid progress on the separation of eBay and PayPal and remains on track to complete the transaction in the second half of 2015. Last month, PayPal filed its Form 10 with the SEC to begin the securities registration process. PayPal expects to update its Form 10 filing in the second quarter 2015 to include details on the separation and distribution and operating agreements between eBay and PayPal, as well as other corporate and business information.