Keith Williams: the UL board as adviser, partner, demanding boss.

• Position: MY BOARD - Company overview

Ed. Note: Keith Williams is president and chief executive officer of UL and is a trustee on the board of this standards organization that was founded in 1894. After earning a B.S. in engineering from Case Western Reserve University, he joined General Electric Co. During a 23-year career at GE he held assignments in global business management, global logistics, marketing and sales. In 1997 he was named president, Asia-Pacific Operations, for Medtronic Inc., based in Tokyo. He joined UL in 2005.

Originally known as the Underwriters Electrical Bureau and later Underwriters Laboratories, UL emerged at the close of the 19th century as fire-related property and casualty losses swept America. A young Boston engineer, William Henry Merrill, showed with his work at the Chicago 1893 World's Fair that scientific methods--Know by Test and State the Facts--could greatly diminish these perils. Under his stewardship, in a small shop on E. 26th Street in Chicago, fire protection engineering was born and life sprung to their motto "Fire as Servant Not Master"

UL has evolved to serve clients globally in pursuit of safe living and working conditions for people. Today UL operates in 102 countries testing and certifying products like solar and wind energy components, mobile phones and electronic payment security systems, electric vehicle batteries and charging stations, thermoplastics, computer network servers and routers, advanced medical devices, LED lights--even the water you drink.

Our 17-member board of trustees plays a vital role helping to ensure that our company maintains fidelity to our mission and stays on track to be a growth company. As CEO, I view the board members as partners, as a trusted source of counsel with a common goal. A few years ago, for example, the board played a key role advising on and ultimately approving a decision to make a major financial decision to create a center of excellence in San Jose for testing solar panels. While that initial organic investment was initially dilutive to earnings it was central to our mission, and we have since enjoyed amazing financial growth and have added four more photovoltaic centers in China, India, Germany and Japan.

UL's board is traditionally headed by a nonexecutive chairman. Today, that position is held by Stephen Coley who enjoyed a long, successful career at McKinsey helping companies with strategy development. He and the other trustees have been critically important to our success. From my...