NY Times Reports on Corporate Board Commitments
The New York Times recently published an article about university presidents who serve on corporate boards. This is something that we’ve mentioned on RPInsider before. It’s a good read, and it seems that the companies on whose boards Dr. Jackson serves defend her ability to balance her time (quoted after the jump).
Some interesting excerpts from the article:
In the case of Dr. Jackson and her five board appointments, Ms. Minow says, “it is just physically impossible to do the work necessary to be a good director” on so many boards. The Corporate Library estimates that board members must invest 240 hours a year, including meetings and preparation, to do the work properly. But it can become a full-time job if the company runs into trouble.
Charles M. Elson, a corporate governance specialist at the University of Delaware, is highly critical of university presidents who serve on several boards, although he is reluctant to single out particular directors or companies. “If you see a university president on multiple boards, that’s a problem,” he says. “There is no way you can do the job. Someone has got short shrift.”
Some of the companies these presidents served make a different assessment, however.
Marathon Oil said it was proud to have Dr. Jackson on its board. “She is a valued contributor, with a keen attention to detail and breadth of knowledge that serves Marathon well,” a company spokesman says.
FedEx said her broad array of commitments had not interfered with her work on its board and that she had recently been selected to be chairwoman of its nominating and governance committee. “We consider the breadth of her experience — in academia, government service and as a member of other public company boards — to be a tremendous asset to our company,” says a FedEx spokesman.
I.B.M. said that Dr. Jackson, who is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, was re-elected to the I.B.M. board this spring by more than 93 percent of shareholder votes cast. “It is clear that the overwhelming majority of I.B.M.’s stockholders appreciate her contributions to the company,” says an I.B.M. spokesman.
Dr. Jackson would not comment for this article. A Rensselaer spokesman, William N. Walker, said she regularly worked on her board duties through vacation and on weekends. As proof that she was not being distracted from her Rensselaer duties, he cited the hiring of more than 270 new faculty members, $700 million in construction and renovation including four new centers on campus, and a $360 million anonymous donation in 2001 as part of a $1.4 billion capital campaign. Her networking at I.B.M. paid off by helping to bring a $100 million supercomputer to the campus in partnership with I.B.M. and New York State, he said. In June, Rensselaer’s board of trustees voted to give Dr. Jackson another 10-year term.
Share
Rensselaer spokesman:”$700 million in construction and renovation including four new centers on campus, and a $360 million anonymous donation in 2001 as part of a $1.4 billion capital campaign”
“RPI looks to refinance $746 million in debt: Officials hope action will greatly improve finances after years of big deficits” : http://www.allbusiness.com/education-training/education-systems-institutions/14256758-1.html
Does anyone know how the budget of the EMPAC, or the EVAC, compares to the budgets of the School of Architecture, Engineering, Science, Humanities?
Yes. EMPACs budget is much smaller than you would think. ECAVs budget comes from the Union, staffing is paid for by the administration. Again, much smaller than you would think, and much smaller than most other schools. We have some of the lowest game day expenses in ECACH.