Opinion

Company boards show incompetence

Posted October 20, 2008 11:00 pm

After absorbing more than my fill of news and information about the current financial meltdown, I have the following request for senators Obama and McCain.

Will whichever one of you ascends to the presidency please commit to developing and administering a national "competency exam" that anyone named to serve on the board of directors of a publicly-traded company must pass?

Surely each of you, like the rest us, must know that such an initiative is needed.

It seems clear that the boards of directors in so many of the financial houses whose names have come to the forefront in recent weeks were dysfunctional; and they certainly didn't seem to know the meaning of the word "fiduciary."

Or, less generously, maybe they were just a bunch of criminals?

I don't really need more to do, but I'll gladly volunteer to help develop the test that I am recommending.

Charles F. Falk

Schaumburg

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