Saturday, December 26, 2009
Unknown to the public
And in most cases, if the recent financial collapse is any indicator, unable to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities. But don't for a minute think this keeps them from making tidy 6 figure sums for little more than a few days work at each of the several companies that hire them. I am referring to corporate directors, allegedly hired to oversee the executive officers of the corporation. The same executive officers that hired them, give them wonderful goodies and makes sure they are paid "appropriately".
YOU might think that board members overseeing businesses that cratered in the credit crisis would be disqualified from serving as directors at other public companies.Board members are just another form of unaccountable crook on Wall St and unlike your Blankfeins, Dimons & Lewis' you don't even know their names. So you never know where they will show up next.
You would, however, be wrong.
Directors who were supposedly minding the store as disaster struck at companies like Countrywide Financial, Washington Mutual or Fannie Mae have not all been banished from other boardrooms. In many cases, directors just seem to skate away from company woes that occurred on their watch.
To some investors, this is an example of the refusal of those involved in the debacle to accept responsibility for it. Whether you are talking about top executives loading up on leverage, regulators who slept while companies took on titanic risks or mortgage lenders that made thousands of dubious loans, few in this crowd have acknowledged culpability. Taxpayers and shareholders, meanwhile, who had nothing to do with the problems, are left holding the bag.
“None of these directors have stood up and said, ‘We made a mistake here by not calling management to account,’ ” said Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at the Corporate Library, a corporate governance research firm. “They have certainly avoided the limelight as far as blame is concerned.”
Moreover, they continue to get work as directors at other companies.
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