Excellent insights from fund trustee Theresa Hamacher who knows good governance! Wilbanks Partners has advised all our Board clients for over a decade to adopt term limits instead of age limits for an additional important reason. Most senior executives able to take on board roles free of conflicts, particularly in the financial services industry, are retiring later during their careers, and as demographics clearly prove, living productive lives far longer than even 30 years ago. A mandatory board retirement age in the early 70’s significantly reduces the pool of available candidates who can serve at least 10-15 years, and artificially skews that pool of candidates towards those who achieved end of life financial security in their 50’s or early 60’s. Our experience is that this latter group is dominated by white males, many of whom were financial entrepreneurs or professional service partners, which further restricts diversity efforts.
