Lionsgate has nominated former Alliance Atlantis Communications CEO Phyllis Yaffe to replace Maple Pictures co-president Laurie May in its boardroom.

On Monday, in a U.S. securities filing, the mini-major proposed Yaffe as an independent director in place of May, who has been a director since 2005 and will not stand for re-election at its upcoming shareholders meeting.

Yaffe, who is also a director of Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund and Torstar Corp., is headed to Lionsgate as it fends off a threatened proxy war by activist shareholder Carl Icahn, who holds 17.8% of the Lionsgate stock.

As part of that defense, Lionsgate in its securities filing said it aimed to bring more independent directors like Yaffe onto its board to replace non-independents like May, who is a principal of Maple Pictures, which has an output and library distribution deal with Lionsgate.

A Lionsgate spokesman said Yaffe will also aid the company’s continuing shift from movies into TV production as she ‘brings a skill set that will be very helpful to us as we continue to grow our own channel platforms.’