All Over Albany

More focus of Shirley Jackson's corporate board memberships

NYT copies follows up on Bloomberg's "college presidents on corporate boards" story -- you know, the one that featured RPI president Shirley Ann Jackson.

Again, Dr. Jackson is one of the examples highlighted:

In the case of Dr. Jackson and her five board appointments, Ms. Minow says, "it is just physically impossible to do the work necessary to be a good director" on so many boards. The Corporate Library estimates that board members must invest 240 hours a year, including meetings and preparation, to do the work properly. But it can become a full-time job if the company runs into trouble. ...

Dr. Jackson would not comment for this article. A Rensselaer spokesman, William N. Walker, said she regularly worked on her board duties through vacation and on weekends. As proof that she was not being distracted from her Rensselaer duties, he cited the hiring of more than 270 new faculty members, $700 million in construction and renovation including four new centers on campus, and a $360 million anonymous donation in 2001 as part of a $1.4 billion capital campaign. Her networking at I.B.M. paid off by helping to bring a $100 million supercomputer to the campus in partnership with I.B.M. and New York State, he said. In June, Rensselaer's board of trustees voted to give Dr. Jackson another 10-year term.

Earlier on AOA:
+ Does Shirley Jackson have too many jobs?
+ RPI's Jackson tops compensation chart

EMPAC, which is a part of RPI, advertises on AOA.