[rpd] [members-discuss] Board Composition

[Guy Halse]

Hi

On 2016/05/04 16:42, Bill Woodcock wrote:
> I believe Mark is right: the important thing here is to address the principle, not waste time talking about specific people and companies which might or might not be affected.

+1

> The comment about North American business culture, and why you shouldn't necessarily assume that the way things are done in the ARIN region are useful exemplars,
This is true on so many fronts - wholesale adoption of American and 
European ideas has got Africa into a lot of trouble. Whilst we should 
certainly learn from those experiences, we need to be cognisant of 
adapting them to our own context and culture.

In this case I'd argue that, given the comparatively small pool of 
passionate people we're drawing from and the increasing number of 
multi-nationals through Africa, it is inevitable that sooner or later 
we'll have a Board that has two or more people from the same 
organisation. The big question is when that becomes a problem?

IMHO the major differentiator between this election and the last is that 
we're having the debate, and that the issue of the /potential/ conflict 
of interests is out in the open. That helps voters make an informed 
decision.

I honestly don't believe that having two people from Liquid (or any 
other organisation) on the Board is the end of the world - that means 
they constitute 25% of the Board, not enough to take any sort of 
majority. I'd be more worried if there were three, and four would raise 
serious alarm bells.

So my suggestion for a rule of thumb would be no more than two people 
from any one organisation, and full disclosure of the potential conflict 
of interests before an election.

- Guy