Re: Candidacy (Tim Ney)

[linas linas org (Linas Vepstas)]

On Tue, Nov 20, 2001 at 12:17:37AM +0100, Christian Schaller was heard to remark:
> Sorry for replying so late, but I have extreme long days this week.
> 
> On Tue, 2001-11-13 at 19:56, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
>
> > It's actually quite common in both for-profit corporations and
> > non-profit organizations for executives of the organization to also be
> > on the board of directors.
> 
> I will not claim to know every detail of a how a corporation work and I
> bet they differ slightly from country to country, but AFAIK the CEO
> meets on board meetings in the role as CEO, to inform the board of the
> current situation of the company, not as the elected representative of 
> the stockholders. The CEO or director attending board meetings due to
> being the CEO/director is in line with my suggestion.

Meceij is right in saying that it is not uncommon to have the CEO also
be the Chairman of the Board.  However, in fairness to Christian, its 
worth noting that when this is the case, the CEO/Chairman is usually 
a strong leader who really is running the show.   Thus, for example,
*if* there was a 'Linux Foundation', one might find that Linus Torvalds 
was both the CEO and the Chairman of the Board.  However, you typically
would *not* see a lesser-known kernel hacker in charge, nor with an 
outsider brought in at later stages to run the show (at least, not 
unless there is a power vacuum to begin with).

So in that sense, Christian is right; except when it is appropriate, 
you don't elevate the CEO to a too-powerful position.  In this case, 
with a large board of activists, I'm hoping that 'power vacuum' won't
be a danger.

--linas



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