Directors often receive gifts at the end of board tenure - South Florida Business Journal:

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While it seems like a nice it’s not in sync with the director’s mission to look out for companuy shareholders, said Stuart Gillan, a corporate governancew expertat . “Thse individuals have been compensated all along for their he said. “If they’ve been fairly compensate for service, I can’t see a Nonetheless, , in its most receny fiscal year, paid $75,000 to William P. Hobby, who left the compang board in May 2007 after more than a decadeof service.
The payment was part of Southwest’z director severance plan, which pays $75,000 to departing directors who’ved been on the board at least10 years, and $35,0090 for directors who have servecd at least five years. Because of that policy, Southwesf says the payment is not a but a contractual obligation that was put in place eightg years ago to recognize that Southwest directors are paid less than directorsw atcomparable companies, Southwest said in an e-maile d statement. Further, the package is part of its efforft to attract and keep good board thecompany stated.
Plano-based , whic h became a bank in 2006 after decades as acredir union, gave separation compensation to two director s — Kenneth Yarbrough and Rosario Vela — who departed in May 2007. Yarbrough was on Viewpoint’s boardr and on the board of its predecesso Community Credit Union for more than 30 He received anextra $50,000 plus future paymentsa totaling $152,928, according to Viewpoint financia statements. Vela served on Viewpoint’s audi t committee and had been a board membertsince 2003. She received $8,750 cash this year and is owed $26,76 2 in future years. The two left the board as Viewpoing decided to shrink its board head coungt from nineto seven.
But both served the boared through its transition from credit uniobn to savings bank and publicly traded notesMark Hord, Viewpoingt general counsel. “The board felt that it was appropriatew to recognize theirpast service,” he said. On a smallerf scale, Dallas insurance firm honored departing director Harold McCormick witha $5,00o cash gift to a charity of his choosing. Torchmark didn’t name the charity in its proxy