* Quits after less than seven months on board
* Had received near-unanimous support from shareholders
* To host “The War Room” on Al Gore’s Current TV
* Quitting due to TV show commitments
By Ernest Scheyder
Oct 12 (Reuters) - Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has quit Dow Chemical’s board of directors to host a political TV show on Al Gore’s cable TV channel.
Granholm, who joined the board of the largest U.S. chemical maker less than seven months ago, will launch “The War Room” on Current TV this January.
The five-night-per-week show will be something Democrats will love, but “the far right will hate it,” Granholm said in a Current TV statement.
Granholm is also stepping down from her position as a senior adviser to the Pew Charitable Trust.
The Current TV show “requires of course a full-time presence in the (San Francisco) Bay area and the travel associated with those commitments would have been very difficult,” Granholm said on a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.
It was best to make a “clean break” from some commitments in order to focus full time on the TV show, she said.
The former governor will continue to teach at the University of California, Berkeley.
Andrew Liveris, Dow’s chairman and chief executive, said Granholm’s resignation was effective immediately. Granholm’s biography on the company’s website was quickly removed from the board of directors page.
The move leaves the board at an even 12.
“While the tenure was brief, (Granholm’s) experience, perspective and contributions were beneficial, and we wish her well in her new endeavors,” Liveris said.
Granholm received nearly unanimous support from shareholders at Dow’s annual meeting last May.