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See also Women on corporate boards, Corporate governance, interlocking directorates

Question (BUSLIB-L, 11/30/2005)
I'm looking for sources of information that will help me identify members of an organization's Board of Directors. (Cyndi Schoenbrun, Consumer Reports)

Responses
Quite a number of people recommended (positively) the They Rule site. The data is a year old, I believe, but the information on the site is robust and gives plenty of opportunity to really explore a board of directors, or the affiliations of the people cited on the web site. Besides, the application is just fun to use, albeit with small print and icons.

We were looking at They Rule, really getting excited, and were considering sending the link to some faculty to use in Corporate Governance classes.

When you get in, if you click on Load Map, then click on Popular - there are some pre-compiled groups where the credibility could be questioned. Some seem like they could come from The Onion - like one "Without Viagra None of These Companies Would Be Happy."

I'm far from a fuddy-duddy but I question the methodology of some. (Deborah A. Sommer, Vanderbilt Graduate School of Management)

Actually, the founder of They Rule is a very outspoken political dude, with some strong anti-corporate sentiment - if you read the whole 'about' section you'll see what I mean...

At any rate, the best one that I know of (for board folks) is from Recombinant Capital, a big biotech industry hub (and consulting firm). Click on "power brokers of biotech" and you'll see something just like They Rule, but for just major drug and pharma. It is very, very sophisticated, and all data is current and scrubbed (per the company).

It will allow for you to map paths, analyze distinct relationships and so on - all visually, and very easy to follow, with lots of color coding to boot. While great, it's only great for life sciences related board searches. (David Carpe, researchzilla.com)

Other recommended sources:

ZoomInfo

Mergent Online

BoardEx

Hoovers

Who Knows Who directories

Donor Series

Biography sites at Northwestern University's prospect research site

Corporate Affiliations (stand-alone service or Lexis/Nexis). You can easily enter a name and "responsibility title" value of "BOARD OF DIRECTOR" in the advanced search and get what you need. Nonprofits are not included.

Created on January 1, 2006 l Updated on January 2, 2006