In our paper, Industry Expertise on Corporate Boards, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, we propose and study a measure of board industry expertise. The question of who should sit on corporate boards has attracted significant academic and regulatory efforts in recent years. For example, on December 16, 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released final proxy disclosure enhancement rules. Among other directives, these rules require registrants to “disclose for each director and any nominee for director the particular experience, qualifications, attributes or skills that qualified that person to serve as a director.”  A prominent feature of these disclosures has been an emphasis on related industry experience. In its first proxy filing under these rules, Hewlett-Packard stated that director Marc L. Andreessen “is a recognized industry expert and visionary in the IT industry” who has “extensive leadership, consumer industry and technical expertise” through his positions at and service on the boards of public and private technology companies.  Other major firms making similar claims include Coca-Cola Co., Wal-Mart Stores, and Bank of America.

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