A Mutually Beneficial Relationship

For college presidents, sitting on corporate boards is a way to stay in touch with industry; meanwhile, industry stays plugged into the higher education market.

By Christina Asquith

It’s quite a coup for university presidents to land on corporate boards. Dr. Shirley A. Jackson, president of Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute, for example, sits on the boards of at least five companies, including IBM, FedEx, Marathon Oil, Medtronic and Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.

Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert, and presidents Johnnetta B. Cole, Walter E. Massey and William R. Harvey — of Bennett College, Morehouse College and Hampton University, respectively — together sit on an impressive number of corporate boards.

What makes college and university presidents attractive corporate board members? For one, they deal with a broad and diverse constituency that includes students, professors, parents, community leaders, politicians and alumni — and they bring that management and consensus-building expertise to the boardroom.

And, college presidents are essentially CEOs of small, and not-so-small academic enterprises. Afterall, higher education is a $300 billion industry.

In addition, college presidents often bring their specific scholarly expertise to corporate boards. For example, Jackson and Massey, both physicists by training, sit on the boards of some scientific- and technology-focused companies and foundations. Dr. S. Malcolm Gillis, the former president of Rice University and a professor of economics, is currently the only academic sitting on the board of the Texas-based Halliburton Co.

Major corporations also enjoy the prestige of an academic in their
midst. And indeed, presidents are compensated for sitting on corporate boards, but money is often not the motivating factor. Regardless, average annual board retainers have increased dramatically since 2001.  The average annual cash retainer portion of compensation for a director is now $63,594, up from $36,937. Further, 64 percent of boards pay equity in addition to the retainer, up from 42 percent in 2001.