U.S. investor Mark Rachesky, who thwarted Carl Icahn’s bid to take control of Lionsgate by executing a controversial debt-for-equity swap with the mini-major’s management, is now co-chairman of the company.

Vancouver-based Lionsgate in an SEC Filing unveiled on Thursday said Rachesky, the company’s largest shareholder with a 37.4% stake, will share the co-chairman post with CEO Jon Feltheimer.

Rachesky replaces Harold Ludwig, who led Lionsgate’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday at the Soho Metropolitan Hotel in downtown Toronto.

That shareholders meeting saw Lionsgate’s 12-strong board of directors re-elected after Icahn last month sold off his stake in the indie studio.

Rachesky, a former Carl Icahn protégé, voted with Lionsgate management at the 2010 annual shareholders meeting to end a two-year boardroom battle with Icahn.

Next on the Lionsgate radar is the March 23, 2012 release of The Hunger Games feature, which wrapped production this week in North Carolina.