Chesapeake Energy Corp. will name an independent chairman toreplace Aubrey McClendon and halt an incentive program that allowedthe chief executive officer to amass personal stakes in thousandsof company-operated wells.

McClendon agreed to a board request to terminate the so-calledFounder Well Participation Program in June 2014, 18 months early,without additional compensation, according to a release today.McClendon will not be relinquishing any of the well stakes healready holds, Michael Kehs, a Chesapeake spokesman, said today inan e-mailed statement.

McClendon, the only chairman the company has had since heco-founded it in 1989, was criticized by investors and analystsafter news reports last month detailed his use of interests incompany wells to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in personalloans. Chesapeake shares soared as much as 12 percent, the mostsince December 2008.