A New Talent Pool
from
September/October 2006
by Lois Gilman
Term limits could well push a number of experienced directors into the ranks of likely boardroom candidates at other companies. Boards that adopt term limits usually include the time directors have already served, before the limits were put in place, when measuring how much time they have left. As a result, directors pushed out because of term limits tend to be younger than those who’ve left boards because of age limits, which most commonly set the cutoff at 72.
Michele J. Hooper, managing director of the Directors’ Council, a Chicago executive search firm that focuses on board recruitment, calls directors who have left boards because of term limits “very valuable candidates. Hopefully they let people know whether they’re interested in going on another board.”
Hooper, 55, speaks from experience: She served on Target’s board until she reached its 15-year limit. She’s currently a director of three companies—AstraZeneca International, PPG Industries, and Warner Music Group.
Her experience might be somewhat cheering to Susan Boren, 58, an executive recruiter with Spencer Stuart. Boren is a director at Valspar, a maker of paints and coatings, whose 18-year term limit means she will have to quit the board in 2009. “I’ll be over 60, and probably that means other boards won’t come after me,” she says.
Not necessarily. In boardrooms, 60 isn’t dotage.
