Separation of CEO and Chairs on rise

Seagate Technology has joined the growing number of companies to separate the roles of the chairman and CEO. Earlier this year, Walt Disney Co., Dell Inc., and Oracle Corp. separated their top positions. According to Institutional Shareholder Services, the percentage of companies that have separated the positions of chairman and chief executive officer increased from 45% in 2001 to 50.4% in 2003. But the biggest increases were in the small-cap sector; the S&P 500 and S&P 400 showed only incremental increases. According to the Corporate Library, 377 CEOs in the S&P 500 chair their own boards, compared with 394 last year.