Directors Roster.

• Author: Porter, Martin
• Position: Brief Article

In affiliation with Spencer Stuart -- a quarterly record of new director appointments

THE MAKEUP of American corporate boards is increasingly reflecting the global business economy. According to a just-released Conference Board survey, American companies with a least one non-U.S. director on their boards grew from 35% to 60% during the period 1995-1998. The largest source of these directors, according to Spencer Stuart's latest annual board survey, is the U.K, followed by Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

Small, niche-oriented companies and multinational corporations are equal in their need to diversify their boards with a foreign-markets perspective. That is demonstrated in this edition's Directors Roster. Among the 189 companies recruiting 218 directors to their boards, is a batch of companies recruiting non-U.S. directors, including America Online Inc., barnesandnoble.com Inc., DuPont Co., GalaGen Inc., and McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc.

DuPont, which operates in 65 countries, recruited to its board Goran Lindahl, president and CEO of Sweden-based ABB Ltd., a global technology company. CEO Charles Holiday Jr. says Lindahl brings a combination of broad market knowledge, strong global experience, and a focus on emerging markets. "For a company like DuPont that does about half its sales outside the U.S., having an internationally diverse board is especially valuable' he says.

Holiday, who has spent six years living in Asia, says living abroad enhanced his appreciation of the perspective an international executive can bring to an American board. "I find that your head is where you live," he says, explaining that "while in Asia, I made decisions for DuPont that were constant references to that part of the world and its business culture. That is a very valuable perspective."

GalaGen, a $2 million in revenue nutritional products company, recruited to its board Helmut B. Breuer, former president and CEO of Sandoz Nutrition Corp. who now manages a Swiss-based investment fund that has an ownership stake in GalaGen. He and GalaGen Chairman and CEO Robert Hoerr had previous ties to academia.

As Breuer was scouting the globe for new investment opportunities, GalaGen was also pursuing several overseas markets. Knowing that Breuer had retired in late 1997, Dr. Hoerr says he personally began discussions to recruit him for the board.

In his...