Techies on the Board
from March/April 2007
While there are ways for technology-challenged directors to assess the performance of a chief information officer or chief technology officer, some boards want the extra assurance that comes with having just such a person in their midst. “It’s the most proactive measure a company can take,” says executive recruiter Paul Groce of Christian & Timbers. “I see it as an emerging trend, and if I were going to make one recommendation to a board worried about overseeing technology, that would be it. Having someone who can understand the language of the technology officer but also work as a partner with the other board members removes all the mystery.”Even some companies whose business is technology seem to see the value of this. Among them:
- Cogent Communications Group Inc. The Washington, D.C., operator of a transatlantic fiber-optic Internet network gave a board seat last year to Richard Liebhaber, now 71, a retired executive vice president and CTO of MCI Communications. That’s familiar territory for Liebhaber. In 1997 he signed on as a director of network-equipment maker Avici Systems Inc. of North Billerica, Massachusetts (he became chairman in 2005), and in 2000 he joined the board of JDS Uniphase Corp., a Milpitas, California, manufacturer of optical networking products. He’s also on the board of French software outfit ILOG SA.
- Chordiant Software Inc. Since 2003, the Cupertino, California, company’s board has included William Raduchel, 60, former executive vice president and CTO at Time Warner and before that CIO at Sun Microsystems.
- Tessera Technologies Inc. The San Jose, California, licenser of semiconductor technology named David Nagel to its board in 2005. Nagel, 61, who recently resigned as CEO of software maker PalmSource Inc., previously served as CTO of AT&T Corp.
