公司治理研究公司GMI宣传总监与助理研究员保罗•霍奇森称，在公司调查报告中，倒闭公司的董事被打上了“危险人物”的标签。但他表示，CEO却依然将这些人列入公司董事会成员的候选名单。

    他说：“CEO人才库小之又小。甚至形成了一个不正常的小圈子。”GMI正在开发一个数据库，用于帮助公司客户扩大遴选董事的范围。这个数据库将在下周公布，届时，“将在这个小圈子上打开一个缺口。”

    但霍奇森称：“现在，董事的任务更加艰巨，所需要的技能也更加专业化。不可能随便拉一个毫无经验的人担任董事。”

‘我也可能有这一天’

    芬克斯坦表示，移情因素也能够解释，为何倒闭公司的董事会成员通常能够重新获得类似的职位。“董事会成员通常会换位思考……想象同样的事情也会发生在自己身上。”

    拉克尔认为，通过审查公司在美国证券交易委员会（SEC）的备案文件发现，安然（Enron）以及其他一些已倒闭公司的董事，不仅保住了自己在上市公司的董事会席位，而且还成为新董事会的成员。斯坦福大学的研究显示，美国投资银行贝尔斯登倒闭时在公司任职的12位董事中，有5位目前成为其他上市公司的董事。其中包括弗雷德里克•萨莱诺，他目前在5家公司董事会任职，其中包括哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）与维亚康姆公司（Viacom）。

    雷曼兄弟公司的两位董事目前也在多家著名公司的董事会中任职，包括美高梅集团（MGM Resorts International）、索尼（Sony）与西班牙语电视台 Telemundo。为避免倒闭，政府出面迫使美联银行出售，但公司的10位董事却依然在多家大型公司董事会任职，包括富国银行（Wells Fargo）、奥驰亚公司（Altria）、劳氏公司（Lowe's）、卡夫公司（Kraft）和陶氏化学公司等。

    斯坦福大学研究项目负责人拉克尔称：“这个圈子里存在一个微妙的精英群体。一旦出现问题，这个圈子还能容得下他们吗？问这个问题就好比问江山易改，本性能能不能移。”

    译者：刘进龙/乔树静

    Directors from failed companies are red-flagged in company research reports, says Paul Hodgson, communications director and research associate at corporate governance research firm GMI. But CEOs still pass along these names as potential directors on their company boards, he says.

    "It's a very small pool. It has to be kind of an incestuous feeling," he notes. GMI is developing a database to help company clients expand the kinds of directors they recruit to their boards. The database, which will be unveiled in upcoming weeks, "will crack that circle a little wider," he says.

    However, Hodgson notes, "the job of being a director is more onerous now, and the skills needed are much more exclusive. It's unlikely you would add anyone to the list who does not already have experience."

The 'it could be me' dilemma

    The empathy factor, says Finkelstein, also explains why board members of collapsed companies often sail into similar professional posts. "Board members typically put themselves in the shoes of the other person…. And they could see something like that happening to themselves."

    The result, according to Larcker, is that directors of Enron and other extinct corporations not only remain on the boards of public companies but also have joined new boards, according to its examination of company filings with the SEC. The Stanford study shows that five of the 12 Bear Stearns directors serving when the investment bank imploded are directors of public companies today. That includes Frederic Salerno, who serves on five boards, including CBS (CBS) and Viacom (VIA).

    Two directors of Lehman Brothers now hold board seats at prominent companies like MGM Resorts International (MGM), Sony (SNE) and Telemundo. Ten directors of Wachovia, which was forced to sell itself by the government to avoid failure, went on to serve on the boards of major corporations like Wells Fargo (WFC), Altria (MO), Lowe's (LOW), Kraft (KFT) and Dow Chemical.

    "There's an amorphous, elite group that's in the pool," says Larcker, who directed the Stanford study. "When something goes bad, are those people still acceptable? Do leopards change their spots?"