UK chairmen may get multiple roles

Following is a letter sent to the Editor of the Financial Times:

Dear Sir,

I agree that it is about whether an individual has the time to do the job correctly, as you say in your article ("UK chairmen may get multiple roles" Financial Times, October 12, 2007). The correct answer is that they do not have the time to be Chairman of more than one major company at a time.

One chairmanship and two other board membership, or a maximum of three, is all that anyone can reasonably handle, and that if they are not a CEO of a company.

We need to remember that being on the board of a company is a full time job. Directors need to be thinking about their company 24/7, and that you cannot do if you are on more than three boards. And if you are chairman, you need to multiply the dedication required.

If shareholders do not have enough quality candidates, that is another problem which should be addressed not ignored by changing the rules.

Onésimo Alvarez-Moro

See article:
Individuals could chair more than one top UK company under proposals put forward yesterday by the UK's regulator of the code on good corporate governance.

The Financial Reporting Council is proposing to lift a constraint - enshrined in the UK's Combined Code, devised in 2003 - on individuals chairing more than one FTSE 100 company at a time.

See full Article.