Frederick Ross Johnson, as CEO of RJR Nabisco, was known “for
the fleet of corporate jets that ferried him to celebrity golf events and other
luxurious perks he awarded himself.”[1]
The key words here being awarded himself,
for Johnson epitomized the sort of imperial CEO that made an oxymoron out of
the notion that the corporate board is to serve as an overseer of corporate
management in corporate governance. Awarded
himself should be the oxymoron, for such a conflict of interest runs
against the logic of any viable business calculus.
The full essay is at "The Imperial CEO."
1. James
R. Hagerty, “F. Ross Johnson,” The Wall
Street Journal, January 7-8, 2017.
