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Corporate
Boards
Does the age of board members really matter?
Research by Peter Hahn at the Cass Business School shows that the average
age of non-executive directors at the largest listed British 150 firms has
remained at 58 for each of the past seven years.
We think that non-execs should be stripped of any statutory powers and seen
as pure business consultants or advisers. Age or past accomplishments would
become irrelevant and performance only would count.
At present, non-execs are selected by management itself and not by the
owners of the business. Until someone can find a formula how this deficiency
can be rectified, it would be better to do without all this pretend
corporate governance bureaucracy.
25-Nov-05
Bollore gets four seats on
Havas Board
As there are now 18 seats on
the Board - a number which is probably too large - it only looks reasonable
if the largest shareholder (20%) gets a proportionate number of
representatives on the board. But does that mean that other large
shareholders should be able to demand the same treatment? Large institutions
are often holders of 5-10% stakes in the companies that feature on their
buy-lists. This would certainly endanger the concept of the unified board
that should act in the interests of the company as a whole.
10-Jun-05
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