Albertsons Adds Five Directors, Runs Out Of Chairs

BOISE, Idaho—Albertsons has added five directors to its board in a matter of weeks, bringing it to 15 members, and the company's fictional facilities department confirmed Friday that the boardroom table, built for 12, now requires two directors to share a corner and one to sit in a folding chair borrowed from the floral department.

The new board members include former Food Lion president Meg Ham, executives from Lowe's and Aligned Data Centers, Levi Strauss finance chief Harmit Singh and Meg Whitman, the former HP and eBay chief executive, as the grocer's first executive chair, Grocery Dive reported. Companies in the Russell 3000 typically have 8 to 12 directors, and only about 6% had more than 12 last year. Governance experts told Grocery Dive the expansion adds expertise but could signal uncertainty about strategy.

"Fifteen is a lot of people to agree on a sandwich platter," said Rosalind Pettibone, a fictional boardroom caterer in Boise. "At twelve, you order three platters. At fifteen, you order four, and somebody still gets the end of the turkey wrap."

Fifteen is a lot of people to agree on a sandwich platter…

How Many Fit At The Table

Typical board, low end	8
Typical board, high end	12
Albertsons now	15

Source: Grocery Dive, citing the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance; the chair shortage is from a fictional facilities clipboard

The fictional Institute for Table Length estimates that every director beyond 12 adds 2.3 feet of table and 11 minutes to the approval of the minutes. At 15, the institute projects, the director at the far end must raise a hand and wait to be noticed, as at a deli counter.

I visited an Albertsons here on Saturday for my notebook. (Aisle 4, by the floral cooler.) There were no new holiday sightings worth a page, but there was a stack of folding chairs by the cooler with one missing. I noted the gap in the margin of page 36. It is not a holiday item. It is, I think, a governance item.

"They will need a bigger whiteboard, too," Pettibone said. "I know because they asked me for one. They thought I was facilities."

At press time the board had held its first meeting at full strength, approved the folding chair as a temporary accommodation and formed a committee of five to look into a longer table.

Marjorie Pell has worked or covered American stores for 40 years and still knows where the paper towels are. More from Marjorie Pell ›

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