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Facebook Features No Women on Its Board

Billy Thomas — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:10:59 +0000

Facebook features more than 800 million users, most of which are female, but it seems it’s female dominated network isn’t represented in its board of directors. The board is comprised of seven white men. Face to face, Facebook is dwarfed by other companies similar, who all have at least one female board member; LinkedIn and Google are among these companies.

Anne Mulcahy is a former chairperson and chief executive officer of Xerox corp. and a director at Johnson & Johnson, Target, and Washington Post Co. According to one source, she had this to say about the situation:

“We’re long past having to defend or explain why women should be on boards, given all the data that shows how companies with female as well as male directors perform better. It’s unfortunate when companies with a large percentage of women constituents don’t reflect that in their boardrooms.”

She also said:

“As Facebook and other young companies mature, they need to break out of this pattern and have more diverse representation. Women also need to be better represented in the private equity industry.”

A Fortune 500 survey discovered that those companies with 3 or more female members on their board outperformed those with fewer from 2005 to 2009, scraping in a 43 percent better ROE. Since Facebook’s 5 billion dollar IPO, the contents of its board strategy is faulted. Susan Stautberg, who is the the co-founder of NYBWCD or New York-Based Women Corporate Directors said this about female board members:

“It doesn’t make sense for a company that claims to be so forward looking to not have any women directors. If they just have an old boy’s network in the boardroom, they won’t have access to diverse ideas and strategies.”

Facebook’s board consisting of all men is rather odd considering the company’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, is a woman who, in fact, is a supporter of gender equality; Sandberg is Facebook’s public face, she’s also the best paid senior exec. raking in 30.9 million dollars last year.

In light of this news, how do you feel about Facebook’s lack of female presence on their board? Does it anger you? Are you indifferent? Let us know exactly how you feel in the comments section.

Google And Microsoft Joining Obama’s Science And Technology Council

Frank Reed — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:06:36 +0000

TechCrunch reports that Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt and Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie have been

named to President’s Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The council is designed to help the President and Vice President form policy related to science, technology, and innovation.

The council has an impressive roster of people associated with major academic and research organizations

The group is co-chaired by John Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Eric Lander, Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project; and Harold Varmus, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, former head of the National Institutes of Health and a Nobel laureate.

I checked out the press release regarding the announcement of these appointments to see what other corporations were present on the council. Google and Microsoft are the only two. I realize that it is important for the private sector to be represented. It is worth noting, however, that the private sector representatives on this council that will be helping set public policy are leaders in two technology giants that many already feel have garnered unfair advantages that stifle competition. Also important to note is that prior PCAST members have included Michael Dell so this is not a precedent setting move, just an interesting one.

In all honesty, I have no idea what could actually be accomplished through this type of group regarding a company’s opportunity to gain further advantage and influence. It is interesting, however, that there appears to be little hiding the fact that people like Schmidt, who campaigned hard for the President, are now being ‘rewarded’. The difference between this appointment and people like Dell, is that Google has lately been under more serious government scrutiny with regard to data privacy concerns. You can connect the dots if you wish.

So what impact can this have to us Internet marketing types? That is definitely a ‘to be determined’. As Google expands further into services that are not directly related to search like health information and other areas where privacy concerns are being raised it does seem curious that their position with the US government is getting a little more cozy. I am not a conspiracy theorist by any means but I, like many of you, can observe and wonder what might happen.

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Carl Icahn Will Be Joining The Yahoo Board

Andy Beal — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:59:33 +0000

Here’s an interesting twist in the Yahoo/Microsoft/Icahn love triangle–Carl Icahn and Yahoo have just kissed and made-up.

Under a newly announced settlement, Carl Icahn and two of his cohorts will be elected to Yahoo’s board of directors.

Following the 2008 annual meeting, the Yahoo! Board will be expanded to 11 members. Carl Icahn will be appointed to the Board and the remaining two seats will be filled by the Board upon the recommendation of the Board’s Nominating and Governance Committee from a list of nine candidates recommended by Mr. Icahn, which includes the eight remaining members of the Icahn slate of nominees and Jonathan Miller, currently a partner in Velocity Interactive Group and former Chairman and CEO of AOL.

OK, so is Icahn still going to press Yahoo for a Microsoft sale? Well, there appears to be some conflicting positions.

Yahoo says (emphasis added)…

“This agreement will not only allow Yahoo! to put the distraction of the proxy contest behind us, it will allow the Company to continue pursuing its strategy of being the starting point for Internet users and a must buy for advertisers,” said Yahoo! Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang. “No other company in the Internet space has our unique combination of global brand, talented employees, innovative technologies and exceptional assets, attributes that will help us take advantage of the large and growing opportunity ahead of us. I look forward to working together with our new colleagues on the Board to make that happen.”

Everything from Yang screams "we’re not selling, we’re building." Meanwhile Carl Icahn clearly sees things differently…

“I am very pleased that this settlement will allow me to work in partnership with Yahoo!’s Board and management team to help the Company achieve its full potential. While I continue to believe that the sale of the whole Company or the sale of its Search business in the right transaction must be given full consideration, I share the view that Yahoo!’s valuable collection of assets positions it well to continue expanding its online leadership and enhancing returns to stockholders…"

He seems to still be gung-ho for a sale to Microsoft, and when you consider that his statement is included in an official Yahoo press release, it’s clear that Yahoo’s board feels the same way.

So, with the proxy battle behind them, will we finally see a Yahoo/Microsoft merger?

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