March 11 (Reuters) - Advance Auto Parts ( AAP ) is

appointing three new board members after hedge funds Third Point

LLC and Saddle Point Management took positions in the automotive

afterparts provider, the company said.

The company will add executives with automotive supply chain

and merchandising expertise to sit on its board which currently

has nine members.

The board refreshment comes only six months after the

company picked Shane O'Kelly, a former U.S. Army captain who had

held senior roles at Home Depot ( HD ), to replace Tom Greco as

chief executive.

Armed with a mandate to turn the company around, O'Kelly

arrived in September after Advance Auto Parts' ( AAP ) stock tumbled

last year and around the time S&P Global Ratings downgraded its

debt to "junk." The company's financial performance and stock

price also lagged behind rivals AutoZone ( AZO ) and O'Reilly

Automotive.

As part of the turnaround plan, Advance Auto Parts ( AAP ) is in the

process of trying to sell Worldpac, the wholesale distributor of

original equipment automotive parts it acquired in 2014 when it

bought General Parts International.

Joining Advance Auto Parts' ( AAP ) board immediately are: Brent

Windom, who had been CEO of automotive refinish, industrial

coatings and automotive aftermarket parts distributor

Uni-Select; Gregory Smith, executive vice president at medical

device company Medtronic ( MDT ), and Thomas Seboldt, who spent

much of his career at O'Reilly Automotive.

Third Point, run by billionaire investor Daniel Loeb, and

Saddle Point, run by former Pershing Square Capital Management

partner Roy Katzovicz, teamed up on the investment last year

after Saddle Point had begun researching the company in 2022,

sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The two firms now have under 5% in beneficial ownership in

Advance Auto Parts ( AAP ).

Both Third Point and Saddle Point have pursued an activist

playbook with Loeb most recently threatening a proxy fight at

Bath & Body Works ( BBWI ) last year.

The two funds are now the first activists Advance Auto Parts ( AAP )

has faced after Starboard Value took a position and the firm's

chief investment officer, Jeffrey Smith, joined the board in

2015. He stepped down in 2020.

Smith helped bring on director Eugene Lee, who had been

chief executive officer of Darden Restaurants ( DRI ), and

became chairman of the board at Advance Auto Parts ( AAP ) in 2020.