SpencerStuart/Directors & Boards: directors roster.

• Author: Porter, Martin D.

As this edition of the Directors Roster goes to press, we learn that Jack Kemp, one of the director recruits who has graced our roster pages, was selected as Bob Dole's vice presidential running mate. What a director recruiting coup for the two companies - American Bankers Insurance Group Inc. and Oracle Corp. - who tapped Kemp last year for a board seat while he was co-director of Empower America, an organization that advocates entrepreneurial capitalism. The chairmen of these two companies have had at their disposal a nine-term congressman and Republican Party leader who undoubtedly brought heavyweight consultative horsepower to their board tables.

New Directors Companies Adding New Directors 235 Number of Board Positions 309 Number of New Directors 303(*) Category Number Chairmen/CEOs 103 Senior Officers 65 Retired 37 Consultants 26 Finance 24 Legal 18 Academia 13 Miscellaneous 11 Not-for-Profit(**) 6 Total 303 Women 33 Note: The period covers board appointments announced from February 1, 1996 through May 31, 1996. * Six directors were elected to two board seats. ** Includes foundations, hospitals, etc. Source: SpencerStuart/DIRECTORS & BOARDS As reflected in several articles in this edition of DIRECTORS & BOARDS, a contentious debate has surfaced in governance circles on the use of directors as consultants.

Why all the fuss? The reality is, consultants are one of the most actively recruited types of board members. Although the perception may be that CEOs account for the great majority of board recruits, a breakdown of the newly elected board members in our latest reporting period shows that among the 303 new directors, 9% are classified as consultants. If you factor in the number of executives from the categories of law and finance - quasi-consulting categories - consultants account for nearly a quarter of the total number of director recruits. These figures exclude executives who are...