Warren Buffett on General Re CEO Ron Ferguson declined to join board & Disadvantages of director скачать в хорошем качестве

Warren Buffett on General Re CEO Ron Ferguson declined to join board & Disadvantages of director

Warren Buffett on General Re CEO Ron Ferguson declined to join board & Disadvantages of being a corporate director WARREN BUFFETT: I’d like to make one comment before we proceed to the election of directors. And that’s that in the General Re proxy material, material relating to the General Re merger, it was stated that the intention was to have Ron Ferguson, the CEO of General Re, join the board of Berkshire Hathaway. And that offer was extended, and still remains open, and will remain open for his lifetime and mine, at least, for Ron to join the board. After thinking about it, he decided that he preferred not to be on the board. And in that judgment, he concurs with my feelings, generally, about boards, in that they can restrict your — it can restrict your activities in purchase and sale of a stock. For example, if you do it in a six-month period, then you’re automatically in trouble with the — and you have to return any profit, as calculated in a rather peculiar way, to the company. It means that your compensation system is laid out for the world to see. There may be some tax restrictions, in terms of the deductibility of salary paid. And so, Ron notified me a little bit before the proxy material went out that he preferred, at least, to defer any decision on joining the board. WARREN BUFFETT: I can tell you that it has cost Berkshire significant money by the fact that Charlie and I have been on various boards, because your hands are tied, in many respects, even if you don’t have any knowledge of anything that might be of material, plus or minus — the very fact that it might be imputed to you, can restrict actions significantly. So, we make a point of not trying to be on very many boards. Charlie and I have only gone on boards where we have very significant investments by Berkshire. And sometimes those have caused us to take on a job that we didn’t intend originally, as that Salomon movie showed. So, Ron — the offer is a hundred percent open to Ron at any time. And if he changes his mind in any way, he will be on the board. But that explains the discrepancy between the actions that are being taken this morning and what was described as likely to happen in the proxy material. SYNC VIDEO TO PARAGR