Lords on the board: Titled directors now and in the past

Описание: Professor Christopher Napier, Royal Holloway, University of London.
In a speech in 2012, Dr Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, suggested that there was a need for fresh faces on company boards. He was reported as calling for fewer "lords on the board". Titled directors were common on UK company boards in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, with some lords, often impoverished landowners, making a significant income from multiple directorships. However, from the First World War onwards, titled directors were more likely to have established or developed the companies on whose boards they served, rather than being aristocrats. In the 1930s, about eight per cent of directors had a title of nobility, with lords being particularly common on the boards of insurance companies. Titled directors continue to be found on the boards of UK companies, but Vince Cable's criticisms raise various questions. This presentation was given at the 4th Brunel Accounting Symposium on 20 June 2014, in which Christopher draws on his research to address some of those questions.

Please note that the sound quality is not very good due to some technical problems.