沃尔玛董事会的自我救赎

    沃尔玛的15位董事会成员中有10位是独立董事。与该公司直接相关的有五位，包括杜克、斯考特以及沃尔顿家族的三名成员，罗伯•沃尔顿以及他的弟弟吉姆•沃尔顿和女婿格里高利•潘纳尔。潘纳尔曾经在沃尔玛日本分公司工作过。沃尔玛的首席执行官和董事长职位是分离的，董事长职务由罗伯•沃尔顿担任。

    公司治理评级机构GMI公司的高级助理研究员保罗•霍奇森表示，家族成员担任董事能够强化公司的业绩，因为他们对于企业成功的追求通常与公司股东是相一致的。他补充说道，除了沃尔顿家族的三人，从沃尔玛司的企业规模来看，其外部董事所占比例还是很高的。

    研究企业治理的田纳西大学教授拉瑞•福沃尔表示，“么是独立董事会，什么是真正的外部董事，要对此进行定义是非常困难的。” 他表示，在沃尔玛至少一半董事都与沃尔玛以外的公司有关。

    沃尔玛年收益4,470亿美元，在2011年财富五百强排名第一位。对于沃尔玛这样的超大型企业来说，很难找到一位来自一家并未与沃尔玛有任何方面业务合作的公司的董事会成员人选。但这些董事的社会关系还是有必要加以说明的。沃尔玛在委托书里也对此进行了解释。

    沃尔玛指出，Accel Partners公司的吉姆•布雷耶直接或间接拥有社交媒体平台公司Kosmix不到3%的股份，而后者是沃尔玛于2011年收购的企业。Accel公司某基金拥有Kosmix公司超过15%的股份，在此次收购中获得3,570万美元。该委托书还表示，布雷耶是独立董事中的首席董事，他并未参与沃尔玛挑选Kosmix公司作为收购目标的过程，而且也回避了相关的讨论。

    GMI公司的霍奇森在电子邮件中写道，“他是一位风险投资家，因此，他更有可能对沃尔玛有意收购意的公司进行直接或间接投资。这并不是说布雷耶的独立性不会受到潜在影响，恰恰相反，这正好可以解释为什么这种情况可能会发生。”

    沃尔玛还与那些其董事会成员参与管理的公司进行业务合作。董事米歇尔•伯恩斯在2011年10月之前担任美世咨询公司（Mercer）首席执行官。该公司收到364万美元作为2012财年的咨询服务费。此外，沃尔玛董事阿恩•索伦森是万豪国际集团（Marriott International）首席执行官，沃尔玛公司曾支付给该集团1,900万美元作为“酒店、住宿和相关服务”费。万豪集团曾经花100万美元从沃尔玛采购。

    霍奇森表示，“如果你具有完全的独立性，你应该更容易提出质疑。但如果1,900万美元的业务取决于你在沃尔玛的立场，就没那么容易了。”

    译者：李玫晓/汪皓

    Wal-Mart lists 10 of its 15 directors as independent. The five with direct connections to the company are Duke, Scott, and three members of the Walton family -- Rob Walton, his brother Jim Walton, and Rob Walton's son-in-law Gregory Penner, who previously worked for Wal-Mart in Japan. While Wal-Mart does split its CEO and chairman roles, Rob Walton, not an independent director, holds the chairman position.

    Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at corporate governance ratings agency GMI, says that family members as directors can reinforce a company's performance because their concerns for success are often aligned with those of shareholders. But beyond the Waltons, he added, there's a high proportion of what he called outside-related directors for a company of Wal-Mart's size.

    "When you truly start looking at what is an independent board, what truly is an outside director, the way you define it is really difficult," says Larry Fauver, a professor at the University of Tennessee who focuses on governance. He noted that at Wal-Mart at least half the directors have a connection to the company beyond the board.

    Wal-Mart's scale, $447 billion in revenue and No. 1 on the 2011 Fortune 500 list, does make it hard to find a board member candidate who is affiliated with a company that doesn't do business with the retail giant in some capacity. But the directors' relationships are worth pointing out -- which Wal-Mart does in its proxy.

    The company noted that Accel's Jim Breyer owned directly and indirectly less than 3% of Kosmix, which Wal-Mart acquired in 2011; certain Accel Funds owned more than 15% of Kosmix and received about $35.7 million in the transaction. The proxy stated that Breyer, who serves as presiding director when the independent board members meet, was not involved in Wal-Mart's identification of Kosmix as an acquisition target and recused himself from all discussions.

    "He is a venture capitalist so it becomes more likely that he has some kind of direct or indirect investment in a wide range of companies that might be acquired by Wal-Mart," Hodgson of GMI said in an email. "That's not to say it doesn't potentially compromise his independence, but it does explain how it might happen."

    Wal-Mart also does business with companies where its board members are officers. Until October 2011, director Michele Burns was CEO of Mercer, which received $3.64 million for consulting services in fiscal 2012. Additionally, Wal-Mart director Arne Sorenson is CEO of Marriott International, which received $19 million from Wal-Mart for "hotel, lodging, and related services." Marriott paid Wal-Mart $1 million for purchases.

    "If you are fully independent," says Hodgson, "it's much easier for you to raise questions than if $19 million of business is riding on your staying in Wal-Mart's good books."