Though many Brown students are familiar with Ruth Simmons as the University's president, they might not also identify her as a corporate leader. Simmons has been serving on the board of directors of Fortune 500 corporations Goldman Sachs, Pfizer and Texas Instruments for more than five years.
A corporation's board of directors, elected by its shareholders, serves as its governing body and usually handles issues relating to the company's performance, personnel and compensation. "Board members are responsible for the oversight of an organization ... they are responsible to shareholders in particular, which means that they're there to see whether or not the company is run in accordance with the interest of shareholders," Simmons said in an interview Wednesday.
In her board positions, Simmons said she has become particularly involved in matters of hiring, diversity and advancement of women. "If you're on the board, you're the most senior woman, black person, able to influence policy in that company," she said.
Simmons' positions on these three boards added more than $200,000, not including stock benefits, to her earnings in 2005, according to the companies' Web sites.
The Herald reported last week that Simmons received $684,709 in total compensation from Brown in fiscal year 2005, making her the University's second highest-paid employee.
Simmons has been a member of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs since January 2000 and was on its Compensation and Corporate Governance and Nominating Committees in 2005, according to the company's Web site. She has been on the board of Texas Instruments since 1999 and is a member of its Compensation Committee. She was elected to Pfizer's board of directors in 1997 and was the chair of its Corporate Governance Committee in 2005.
While such commitments can createscheduling obstacles given Simmons' role at the University, she said she is able to work around the meetings because they are planned far in advance and because the boards have been "very accommodating in terms of (her) Brown schedule."
In 2005, the board of Goldman Sachs met six times, Pfizer's board met nine times and the board of Texas Instruments met 10 times, according to the companies' Web sites. Each meeting is typically a one-day affair, but can last longer when the board has pressing matters to discuss, according to Simmons.
"In talking to each of the boards, I made clear that obviously my responsibility to Brown came first. If it got to the point where I could not go to the meetings because of my obligations at Brown, I would drop the boards - this is a no-brainer," Simmons said. "I give every day, long days, every weekend to Brown ... but I do get my own time like anyone who works," she added.
Simmons recalled only one instance, five years ago, when a board meeting prevented her from attending to presidential duties. The conflict arose from a scheduling misunderstanding with her staff, she said.
Stephen Nelson, an assistant professor of educational leadership at Bridgewater State College and a former research associate in Brown's education department, said he does not see university presidents' involvement on corporate boards as harmful to their respective institutions.
Nelson, who studies college presidents, said the time presidents spend as board members is "enormously minimal" compared to the time they put into serving their institutions. He speculated the only downside of presidents' membership on corporate boards would be if they became involved with too many at once.
Simmons acknowledged her corporate responsibilities could become cumbersome. "It would be easier for me without a question - not better - if I didn't have the board responsibilities," she said. But board memberships bring Simmons and the University benefits that outweigh the costs of such commitments, she added.
Nelson said Simmons' involvement in the corporate world could easily bring assets to the University. "Now she's in a new network of potential contacts for her and for Brown University - this could lead from a faculty employment to a new coach to a monetary gift," he said.
Nelson noted it is not unusual for university presidents to hold corporate board positions. Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University, serves on the boards of the Kresge Foundation and the Royal Shakespeare Company of Great Britain; President Richard Levin of Yale University is a director of Lucent Technologies; and Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan, serves on the boards of Johnson & Johnson and the Meredith Corporation, according to the universities' Web sites.
Beyond the benefits her board memberships can confer on the University, Simmons said the experiences also contribute to her decision-making skills. "The most important thing (corporate boards) do for me is that they give me the confidence to tackle some very difficult issues at Brown. ... Being in those environments and observing close at hand the way decisions are made ... helps me be more of a risk-taker by far," she said.
Simmons also said there have been instances in which she has been "let in the door" not because of her position as president of Brown but because of her positions on corporate boards.
"I think to use some of the contacts that I have in the corporate world is kind of a long-term goal of mine - to try to use those contacts to really influence some of the ways in which I will be able to use my skills when I leave Brown University," Simmons said. In particular, Simmons said her corporate experience will help her start a foundation to support education for youth in inner-city schools, which is one of her retirement goals.
In addition, her board experiences have given her chances to correct misconceptions that people have about the University. "There are a lot of mistaken impressions out there about Brown. ... Serving on the boards gives me the opportunity to have those conversations to dispel myths about Brown."
Nelson reiterated the idea that having university presidents serve on a board of directors can benefit both parties. "If the president of a college or university is sitting on a corporate board, then the institution benefits by being able to say that our president was called upon by such and such a corporation. ... But corporate boards add credibility to themselves by them being able to say that we have on our board the president of Brown University," Nelson said.
