David Pottruck.

• Author: Porter, Martin
• Position: Director Spotlight - Profile on the Charles Schwab Corp.'s co-CEO

The co-CEO of Charles Schwab Corp. talks about boards, the Internet, and the 'tyranny of incumbency.'

When the Wharton Technology Club recognized David Pottruck, president and co-CEO of the nation's biggest online-brokerage operation, as the first recipient of its Alumni Achievement Award for outstanding achievements in the technology field, he made a startling revelation: until 1995, he had never used a PC.

"Why would I use a PC?" he asked the standing-room-only audience of Wharton students and online industry insiders at the March 1999 event at Philadelphia's Convention Center. "I had people who typed and completed my spread sheets...people who did my e-mail...I didn't type or do any of that stuff...I didn't want a PC!"

Today, Pottruck has a new attitude. The 49-year-old executive has taught himself to type (he admits looking down at the keys once in a while), learned to operate a PC, and even sends e-mail.

"I do these things because I want to be a role model for everyone else in the company," says Pottruck. "All of us have to eat our own cooking. All of us have to be on the Net. Embracing technology is everyone's job. If you don't, you're dead."

Not only is Pottruck embracing technology at Schwab, but he is also expanding his scope in corporate governance through his work on three outside boards. In 1997 he was elected to his first outside board, at McKesson Corp., the largest U.S. health care supply management company. Later that year he joined the board of Preview Travel Co., which offers online travel services. In November 1998, Pottruck joined the board of Intel Corp., the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductors, the basic technology used in computer chips and electronic components.

In January 1999, McKesson and HBO & Co., a software services company to the health care industry, completed their merger to form McKesson HBOC Inc. Pottruck, who had stepped down from the McKesson board at the time of the merger, subsequently rejoined the newly constituted board. McKesson HBOC is now the world's largest pharmaceutical supply management and healthcare information technologies company.

"It was just a formality," Pottruck says, referring to his hiatus - all of one week before the reappointment to the McKesson HBOC board. As he explains it, the merger agreement called for a new board of five directors from each company. Management then expanded the board to 12 with the addition of Pottruck and a newcomer to both companies, M. Christine...