{"id":9947,"date":"2023-08-17T22:42:54","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T22:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/leadership\/think-twice-before-becoming-an-overlapping-board-member\/"},"modified":"2023-08-17T22:42:54","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T22:42:54","slug":"think-twice-before-becoming-an-overlapping-board-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947","title":{"rendered":"Think Twice Before Becoming An Overlapping Board Member"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Serving as a corporate director can be fun, rewarding and intellectually stimulating. For the individual board member, it provides an opportunity to leverage expertise and wisdom, and can serve as a useful entree to career-expanding relationships.<\/p>\n

And sometimes directors can \u201cdouble their fun\u201d through simultaneous board service on companies that might share similar interests, strategies or perspectives. This can leverage skill sets, and can also lead to meaningful efficiencies, information flow and coordination between the companies. That\u2019s why the use of such \u201coverlapping board\u201d structures can make a great deal of sense from governance and strategy perspectives.<\/p>\n

Except, of course, when it doesn\u2019t. And that\u2019s happening more often than not these days with the dramatically increased level of antitrust enforcement from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).<\/p>\n

Under the Biden Administration, these enforcement agencies have been especially aggressive in challenging overlapping directorships when they exist between competing companies. The agencies interpret applicable laws to prohibit these kinds of overlapping directorships because of their potential to harm competition in the shared industry sector. Their specific concerns are with how overlapping directorships can facilitate the exchange of confidential and competitively sensitive information between the allegedly competing companies, with potential harm to consumers.<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

In fact, over the last two years, the DOJ and FTC have publicly announced several resolutions requiring the unwinding of such board arrangements. Two of these occurred within the last few days, with press releases announcing the elimination of cross directors in two different overlapping board arrangements. One of these arrangements involved companies the FTC claimed to be direct competitors in the production and sale of natural gas in a large natural gas-producing region. The other recent arrangement involved the resignation of two directors who the DOJ alleged served on the boards of two social network companies that connect users, businesses and other neighborhood stakeholders.<\/p>\n

The challenge for current and potential directors is one of advance diligence; how best to identify the potential antitrust risk before agreeing to participate in an overlapping board relationship. After all, many of these relationships serve valid and important business reasons, in which the linkage between boards provides substantial commercial benefit.<\/p>\n

The key question is whether the companies proposing the overlapping board relationship are likely to be considered competitors by the government. That can be a far more nuanced question than may first meet the eye, as competition can be considered to exist at multiple different levels of a company\u2019s business operations, such as individual product or service lines, research and development, and even the recruitment of employees.<\/p>\n

Cross-directorships arrangements are a not-uncommon governance model, and often present themselves as benign and practical in terms of nature and risk. That can lead to the temptation for both potential cross directors, corporate leaders and governance advisors either to miss the issue entirely, to downplay its significance, or to apply their own competitive analysis to particular arrangements, without consulting antitrust experts.<\/p>\n

As simple as the concept of competition may seem at the surface, it can be a whole lot more nuanced when viewed through economic and antitrust lenses. And if nothing else, the antitrust laws are complex and their application often depends on case law. A CEO or board member\u2019s evaluation of competition or individual court decisions may not be accurate.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question that overlapping board arrangements can make a great deal of business sense. There\u2019s also no question that when such arrangements involve competing companies, the federal antitrust enforcement agencies are likely to be interested. And that\u2019s the conundrum for those who have the desire, the capacity, and the skills to serve in these arrangements.<\/p>\n

Cross-directorship service opportunities don\u2019t always come with antitrust compliance assurances. Oftentimes, it will be up to the proposed cross director to take the initiative on potential risk by asking corporate counsel-not just an executive or governance advisor. That\u2019s not only a fair and legitimate question to ask, it\u2019s also the smart one.<\/p>\n

Because while there\u2019s some truth to the old saw about \u201call publicity is good publicity,\u201d it doesn\u2019t necessarily apply to press releases from the antitrust enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

Michael Peregrine thanks his partner, Stephen Wu, for his assistance in preparing this post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serving as a corporate director can be fun, rewarding and intellectually stimulating. For the individual board member, it provides an opportunity to leverage expertise and wisdom, and can serve as a useful entree to career-expanding relationships. And sometimes directors can \u201cdouble their fun\u201d through simultaneous board service on companies that might share similar interests, strategies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leadership"},"yoast_head":"\nThink Twice Before Becoming An Overlapping Board Member | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Serving as a corporate director can be fun, rewarding and intellectually stimulating. For the individual board member, it provides an opportunity to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Think Twice Before Becoming An Overlapping Board Member | Brandiary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Serving as a corporate director can be fun, rewarding and intellectually stimulating. For the individual board member, it provides an opportunity to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Brandiary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-17T22:42:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1692312174_0x0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4\"},\"headline\":\"Think Twice Before Becoming An Overlapping Board Member\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-17T22:42:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-17T22:42:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947\"},\"wordCount\":724,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Leadership\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947\",\"name\":\"Think Twice Before Becoming An Overlapping Board Member | Brandiary\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-17T22:42:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-17T22:42:54+00:00\",\"description\":\"Serving as a corporate director can be fun, rewarding and intellectually stimulating. For the individual board member, it provides an opportunity to\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Think Twice Before Becoming An Overlapping Board Member\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\",\"name\":\"Brandiary\",\"description\":\"Latest Business and Startup News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Brandiary\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png\",\"width\":381,\"height\":100,\"caption\":\"Brandiary\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Think Twice Before Becoming An Overlapping Board Member | Brandiary","description":"Serving as a corporate director can be fun, rewarding and intellectually stimulating. For the individual board member, it provides an opportunity to","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Think Twice Before Becoming An Overlapping Board Member | Brandiary","og_description":"Serving as a corporate director can be fun, rewarding and intellectually stimulating. For the individual board member, it provides an opportunity to","og_url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947","og_site_name":"Brandiary","article_published_time":"2023-08-17T22:42:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1692312174_0x0.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4"},"headline":"Think Twice Before Becoming An Overlapping Board Member","datePublished":"2023-08-17T22:42:54+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-17T22:42:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947"},"wordCount":724,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Leadership"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947","name":"Think Twice Before Becoming An Overlapping Board Member | Brandiary","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-08-17T22:42:54+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-17T22:42:54+00:00","description":"Serving as a corporate director can be fun, rewarding and intellectually stimulating. For the individual board member, it provides an opportunity to","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9947#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Think Twice Before Becoming An Overlapping Board Member"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/","name":"Brandiary","description":"Latest Business and Startup News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization","name":"Brandiary","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png","width":381,"height":100,"caption":"Brandiary"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com"],"url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9949,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947\/revisions\/9949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}