Scrap non-execs, says Young

LORD Young of Graffham, Baroness Thatcher's favourite businessman, controversially waded into the post-Enron corporate governance debate by demanding that non-executive directors be banished from Britain's boardrooms.

Just as City heavyweight Derek Higgs was investigating ways of strengthening the independence of outside directors to make their relationship with executive boards less cosy, the former Trade and Industry Secretary forcefully argued for the opposite course.

In his departing speech as president of the Institute of Directors, Lord Young declared part-timers not working day-to-day in a company would never know enough about the business to blow the whistle on bad practices.

'The idea has come about that in some manner non-executive directors can second-guess the executives. Of course they can't,' he said. 'Some are on a dozen or more boards, often in businesses they have no experience of, or ever worked in. All they can do at best is judge what management tells them. If management is not too forthcoming, they can never even know until it it far too late.' The ex-Cable & Wireless chairman added: 'Why bother with non-execs at all?'

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