Following is a letter sent to the Editor of the Financial Times:
Sir,
Alain Minc is not at all happy with the way things are moving nowadays in governance ("Minc attacks 'passion' for independence" Financial Times January 31, 2007).
It appears that Mr. Minc needs lessons on what it means to be an independent director, and receiving extra commissions from the company where one is supposed to be an independent director does not rate it. I am surprised he didn´t throw in his criticism of the Anglo-Saxon approach.
What he misses is the cosy, insider, relationship-based approach which has served him and his ilk very well. Connections are not all there is to an independent director’s job. Isn´t now, never was!
Welcome to the real world of governance Mr. Minc.
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
See article:
Alain Minc, the consultant who has set himself up as the eminence grise to the French business establishment, launched a blistering attack yesterday on the "Puritan passion" for independent directors.
Mr Minc said he was quitting the boards of two quoted companies, amid accusations of a conflict of interests. He announced his resignation from the board of Vinci, the construction and toll road group, in La Tribune, a French business daily. Mr Minc later told the Financial Times the "tradition of Anglo-Saxon . . . political correctness [would] mean the end of board control over managers". Boards seeking truly independent directors would be left with "brilliant but inexperienced" candidates, such as Nobel prize winners and sociology professors, to monitor executive management.
Mr Minc, whose talent for deal-spotting has won him retainers from some of France's most powerful business elite, was forced to step down after it became clear that investors were uncomfortable with his role as an adviser to François Pinault.
See full Article (paid subscription required).
Posts
