The boardroom battle between Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor and self-styled shareholder activist, and Motorola, the troubled mobile phone maker, is coming down to a fight over one man: Keith Meister.

Meister, who has been chief executive of Icahn Enterprises since 2003, is one of the four executives Icahn has nominated to the Motorola board. The 35-year-old Harvard graduate is described by Icahn as "a top member of the Icahn team".