Recent media stories have reported on how several senior
corporate executives, recently separated from their positions due
to corporate controversy, have announced their resignation from
outside corporate boards. This serves as a reminder to the
governance committee of the benefit of "advance
resignation" policies.
The concept behind these policies is to allow the governing
board the option of continuing the board service of a sitting
director who either changes employment status from that which was
held when he or she was nominated to the board, or has been exposed
to some form of corporate or legal controversy that could reflect
on his or her continuing fitness for service on the board. The
policy mechanism requires each director to submit a signed
resignation upon the occurrence of certain change of status or
circumstance events articulated in board policy. The board or
governance committee then has the option of accepting or declining
the resignation, as may be
