Directors Roster.

• Author: Porter, Martin
• Position: Survey of corporate directors

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

According to Spencer Stuart's survey of 100 of the nation s largest companies, 73 reported that their boards had set a mandatory retirement age for outside directors, ranging from 65 years old to a high of 73. Only one of the 100 companies reported that the average age of its board exceeded 70. The survey also found that the median age for directors in 1996 was 61, a figure virtually unchanged for the past seven years.

Our own research of 210 companies adding 260 new directors to its boards during this reporting period of the Directors Roster (April-June 1997) revealed that the median age of directors (based on an average of 100 directors whose ages were ascertained from our research efforts) was 57.

Despite these statistics, we've found at least six new directors in their 70s tapped to serve on the boards of various companies. Some of these directors are joining boards with a host of other directors who are also in their 70s.

One such director is 74-year-old Jackson T. Stephens, chairman of the well-known investment advisory firm Stephens Inc., tapped to serve on the board of the department store retailer Dillard's Inc. Stephens will serve on Dillard's board along with another director featured in this edition's roster, retired congressman John P. Hammerschmidt, who at the age of 74 was recruited to the board of American Freightways Corp. Also serving on Dillard's board are Calvin N. Clyde Jr., the 76-year-old chairman of T.B. Butler Publishing Co., and John H. Johnnson, the 79-year-old president of Johnson Publishing Co. Inc., publishers of Ebony magazine.

Also featured in this Roster is 71-year-old Warren Christopher, rejoining the board of Edison International, an $8.5 billion electric utility company. The former secretary of state had served as a director of Edison from 1971-1977 and again from 1981-1993. Edison's board also includes 69-year old Charles Miller, chairman and CEO of Avery Dennison Corp., 70-year-old directors E.L. Shannon Jr., retired chairman of Santa Fe...