Looks like I’m not the only one who thinks corporate boards are incestuous.

Peggy Curran in today’s Gazette (no link, someone was sleeping at CanWest Interactive and forgot to upload the story):

It is a truth universal (sic) acknowledged – at least by those of us who will never make the cut – that corporate boards are incestuous affairs, peopled by well-tailored movers and shakers who go to the same functions, shop at the same fromagerie and get their best gossip in the VIP lounge at the airport.

Heather Munroe-Blum’s Alcan appointment isn’t the first time a university president from this town has had questionable appointments to other boards. Concordia’s ex-rector Frederick Lowy was on the boards of Dundee Bancorp (a “wealth management” company) and Neurochem (a pharmaceutical company). In exchange Dundee’s chairman Ned Goodman had an MBA program named after him and an honorary degree. Neurochem’s Francesco Bellini single-handedly created Concordia’s genomics research facility (Conflict of interest? Nah.) and also got an honorary doctorate.

Oh the tangled web they weave…