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Last week, Walter Industries Inc. director Howard Clark Jr. joined the board of United Rentals Inc. of Greenwich, Conn. The former Lehman Brothers vice chairman now sits on the board of four publicly traded companies.
Might Clark be overcommitted? Joe Troy, senior vice president of financial services at Walter, said he isn't worried. Clark wouldn't take on more responsibility than he could handle, and besides, the Tampa homebuilder requires its directors to consult with the board-level nominating committee before taking on any new directorships. "I think good corporate governance is that you have a discussion about it," Troy said.
Outback Steakhouse is taking a more absolute approach to the question. Citing the additional burdens recently imposed by Congress' Sarbanes-Oxley law and new stock exchange rules, the Tampa restaurant company has capped at four the number of boards each of its directors can sit on, director W.R. "Max" Carey Jr. said in a recent interview.
Also at Walter . . . Two senior executives at Walter's U.S. Pipe & Foundry unit, executive vice president of operations Mike Keel and human resources director Darrell Witt, recently jumped ship to competitor McWane Inc.
McWane may have needed some new blood. New York Times reporters David Barstow and Lowell Bergman recently earned a Pulitzer Prize for a series of reports on that manufacturer's workplace safety problems.