One of the most intriguing and fascinating part of the Nortel (NRTLQ.PK) soap opera over the past eight years has been how Nortel’s board has escaped more than just light scrutiny.
While John Roth, Frank Dunn, Bill Owens and Mike Zafirovski have raked over the coals for their performances as Nortel’s chief executive, Nortel’s board has been treated with kid gloves even though they are supposed to be representing the best interests of shareholders.
But as Nortel apparently seems headed to an asset sale that could lead to its disappearance, the performance of the board, what it should have done, what it didn’t do, and what it knew needs to be thrust into the spotlight.
We need to ask if the board could have made major differences in Nortel’s fate.
What were their decisions that they failed to approve or, worse, failed to oppose that caused Nortel to take disastrous decisions?
Who was there when Bill Owens wanted to enter the Indian market even though it meant losing hundreds of millions of dollars?
Who was there as Nortel sat idly buy not making strategic acquisitions, and not selling off non-core assets at the right time?
There are lots of questions to be answers. Now is the time to start asking them.
For what it’s worth, here’s Nortel current board:
Harry Pearce, who was Chairman of the Board of Hughes Electronics, a director and Vice-Chairman of General Motors Corporation from January 1996 to June 2001.
Jalynn H. Bennett, president of Jalynn H. Bennett and Associates Ltd., a consulting firm in strategic planning and organizational development in both the public and private sectors.
James Hunt Jr., former governor of North Carolina from 1977 to 1985 and 1993 to 2001.
Dr. Kristina Johnson, Dean of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University.
John MacNaughton, who served as the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board from 1999 until his retirement in 2005.
John Manley, a Member of Parliament for Ottawa South from November 1988 to June 2004
Richard David McCormick, former chairman, president and CEO with U.S. West
Claude Mongeau has been Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of CN since October 2000. He leads CN’s strategic planning process and he is responsible for the overall financial management of CN.
David Richard, who was Canadian National Managing Partner of the Corporate Finance practice of Ernst & Young LLP and as the senior partner in the firm’s Corporate Recovery and Restructuring practice until his retirement from the partnership in 2002.
Mike Zafirovski
In terms of comments, let’s focus on some of the decisions Nortel’s board could have made and the role they should have played over the past eight years. And let’s do our best to stay away from simply bashing the board. In other words, try to be critical and constructive.
