Forbes Magazine has published a number of articles on corporate governance, with particular focus on the directors who serve on the boards of multiple Fortune 500 companies. An article called America's Most Overworked Directors says "For some there doesn't appear to be enough hours in the day. Shirley Jackson is a case in point. Jackson, an accomplished theoretical physicist, sits on the board of eight major companies, all while tending to her day job as president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute."
Another article Black Directors: Diversity Without Diversity says:
In recent months, many have noted the emergence of African-Americans at the very top tier of America business. Richard Parsons, chief executive of AOL Time Warner, always gets a nod, as do Stanley O'Neal, the next CEO of Merrill Lynch, and Ken Chenault, the boss at American Express...
But what about Shirley Jackson and William Gray III? Neither Jackson, the president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, nor Gray, president of the United Negro College Fund, is often listed among black business leaders even though they do what no one else in corporate America does--black or white. Gray and Jackson both sit on eight boards of S&P 500 companies, including AT&T and FedEx in Jackson's case and Pfizer and J.P. Morgan Chase for Gray.
We would point out that
President Jackson may be on
AT&T's board of directors because she worked at
Bell Labs for 15 years back when it was part of AT&T, and distinguished herself in that capacity. There is also no attempt in either of these articles to assess Dr. Jackson's effectiveness in any of her jobs. We would argue that her achievements since assuming the presidency of
Rensselaer speak for themselves.