A great director I served with: Roberto Goizueta, a logical thinker with a human touch.

• Author: Goodrich, Henry B.
• Position: Putting In Place the Right Board for the 21st Century

IN ANSWERING this interesting question of my choice for a great director, my thoughts went to many outstanding directors with whom I served on outside boards. I decided, however, to concentrate on a great director who served on a board where I was the chairman and CEO.

When I changed from outside director in 1980 to top management of Sonat Inc., I was faced with the opportunity of recruiting a new director for the company. Since Atlanta was our largest market for natural gas, and the Atlanta director we then had was nearing retirement focused on new business leaders in Atlanta. We also were heavily involved in drilling programs overseas and had a real need for a director with international experience and a technical background.

We quickly targeted the new CEO of Coca-Cola, Roberto Goizueta, who met all our criteria. Unfortunately, he was being besieged by a host of other companies with the same idea. We did, however, have several things going for us, including a reputation as being very strong in strategic planning. Another plus that developed as we talked was the fact that our monthly board meetings were held in New York and Goizueta had a lot of reasons to be in that area. Certainly the most important factor was that Sonat, for years, had concentrated on building an outstanding board and Goizueta already knew many of our directors.

Our approach was carefully made, led by A. H. (Billy) Sterne who was CEO of Trust Company of. Georgia and a longtime director of Sonat and chairman of our nominating committee. Roberto and I hit it off well, and he joined the Sonar board in 1980, and still serves with distinction.

That's a long background to get to the question about what I learned from Roberto Goizueta, which was a lot. First, he was an engineer who had moved into top management, as I had. He was faced with a major...