Boom Times for Director Emeritus

: "Corporate Board Member January/February 2005
Feature Story
Boom Times for the Director Emeritus
by John R. Engen

A growing number of board members are finding a new afterlife that sometimes comes with pay, benefits�and best of all, a chance to hang in long enough for all your options to vest.

Malcolm MacKay has joined one of corporate America�s semi-hidden clubs: He�s a director emeritus. A managing director of the search firm Russell Reynolds Associates, MacKay spent 23 years on the board of Independence Community Bank Corp. in Brooklyn, New York. When the company agreed last April to merge with Staten Island Bancorp, the combined board would have had a whopping 21 members�far too many, even by community-bank standards. Rather than push some of the Independence folk out entirely�they had voted for the deal, after all, and had valuable experience�the new company made MacKay and four other Independence board members an offer they didn�t refuse, the status of director emeritus. �It was part of the merger agreement,� says MacKay, 64. �To make leaving easier, we were given the title of emeritus.� As further easement, the five will collect annual retainers of $25,000 and meeting fees of $2,000�the same as regular board members�until their original elected terms would have expired, through 2005 for MacKay. "