An organization’s board of directors carries the responsibility of corporate governance — that is, oversight on the leadership team to ensure that the interests of the organization’s stakeholders (investors, customers, employees and vendor partners) are represented in all business decisions. The recent failure of several large institutions (AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, General Motors, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, to name a few) have led to calls for greater scrutiny of who gets appointed to the board of directors and the degree to which they are held accountable for the organization’s activities.