Time for independent directors to redefine themselves by standing up for investors

While Eagle Hospitality Trust's directors faced arrest this month, Sabana Reit struggled to justify the independence of an ID

Ben Paul

Published Sun, Oct 11, 2020 · 09:50 PM

eagle hospitality trust

ONE of the first questions I ask myself when trying to determine if shares in a company are worth owning is: Whose company is this?

Understanding who controls a company helps set my expectations - for better or worse - on how it is likely to be run, and how minority investors like me might be treated.

Yet, I almost never bother checking the identities of the independent directors (IDs), who are supposed to look out for small investors like me if push ever came to shove. The reason, I suppose, is that I do not really believe that it matters who IDs are.

For most of my professional life, the idea of having a strong element of independence on corporate boards has been widely embraced. This thinking can be traced back to 1992, when a committee in the United Kingdom headed by the late …