Directors Roster.

• Author: Porter, Martin
• Position: New corporate director appointments

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

This edition of the Directors Roster features 210 companies adding 263 new corporate directors, many of whom - in the spirit of the technology-oriented articles found elsewhere in this edition - bring high-technology expertise to their boards. We caught up with three of these executives, each joining a corporate board for the first time, to talk about the juncture of technology and governance.

Joining the board of Ceridian Corp., a $1.3 billion information services company, is Robert (Bo) H. Ewald, EVP and COO of Silicon Graphics Inc., a $3.7 billion computer and technology company.

Ewald was invited to Ceridian's board by its chairman and CEO Lawrence Periman, whom he had known personally for four years. Ewald says Periman told him that Ceridian had recently become a full-services company, and was seeking someone from the high technology industry for its board. The combination seemed ideal: Perlman expects Ewald's product development and marketing skills to be useful to Ceridian as it forges into new business opportunities, while Ewald hopes to learn more about the information services business.

The high-technology arena is characterized by rapid, continuous change, Ewald explains. "Directors, he says, must at least understand directions technology might take, and have the ability to discuss its implications on the company."

We also spoke with Gerard (Tex) Schenkkan, VP of corporate development of Quantum Corp., a $6 billion manufacturer of computer-storage devices, who joins the board of $35 million Cerion Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of metallic platforms used in computer disk-drives.

Schenkkan met with an executive recruiter he had known for many years who was conducting a board search for Cerion, which sought a director with experience in strategic and corporate development in the high technology industry. This was an exciting opportunity for Schenkkan to learn about corporate governance at a growing company facing many business challenges.

He admits to not being a "trained technologist," but feels his interest and experience in technology enables him to understand the potential impacts of competing technology - technologies that may not even...