The board of Men’s Warehouse Inc. (NYSE: WM) is made up of people who should not be on any public board. The irony is that all were added on the watch of fired chairman George Zimmer. He thus sowed the seeds of his own demise. However, that does not change the fact that the board has no qualifications to make the critical decision it made to oust Zimmer, or how it should restructure management for the future.
The least likely man to be on any board of any kind is new age doctor Deepak Chopra, M.D. He has written a number of books, but his primary qualification, according to the company is that he “listens well and brings wisdom.” If that is the marker, the board would be better adding His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
Another board member without a single qualification is Michael L. Ray, Ph.D. Ray, is the John G. McCoy — Banc One Corporation Professor of Creativity and Innovation and of Marketing. Among his main qualification, according to Men’s Warehouse, is that he is a “mediator and consensus builder” and “listens well and fosters dialogue.” That must have included the dialogue around the ouster of Zimmer.
Another board member who appears out of place is Rinaldo S. Brutoco, who is president and chief executive officer of ShangriLa Consulting. The firm does not seem to have a mission per se. He is also the head of the The World Business Academy, an odd nonprofit think-tank.
Finally, there is the former CFO of Men’s Warehouse, David H. Edwab, who is currently the board’s vice chairman. He made the brilliant decision to leave the retailer to work at Bear Stearns, but then came back to the retailer. The best Men’s Warehouse can say of him is that he is an “inactive” Certified Public Accountant.
Last year, each non-employee director made more than $200,000.
Most analysts, and men on the street, believe that Zimmer’s sacking should not have happened, or should have been done more carefully. Given the composition of the board, a bad result is all that could have been expected.
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