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| Best Practices: On the Board |
Exit the Fishbowl
Suzanne McGee
11/01/2005
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Daniels is well aware that going private does not mean that he can ease up on
governance. Rather, he says, the fact that Nicolet’s stock is no longer publicly
traded simply removes one lot of costs and one group of stakeholders. “Going
dark can’t mean going silent; we have a responsibility to other stakeholders and
to the community,” he says.“There are companies that probably shouldn’t be public, particularly if they
don’t need access to the capital markets for financing,” says Susan Shultz, CEO
of the Board Institute, a Phoenix firm that assesses the effectiveness of both
private and public company boards. “But going private doesn’t mean that boards
can toss governance rules out the window.” Indeed, she maintains that without
the public market to act as a check and balance on management, the demands on an
independent director to act as a counterweight to management increase. “Having
top-notch governance can be even more important when you are private,” she says.
Cutting Sarbanes-Oxley compliance costs is one thing, she adds; pinching pennies
on governance is quite another. Suzanne McGee is a freelance Journalist who covers corporate finance and
governance.
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