Governance regulation of Chessfield;

Chessfield is a well-known American company in the sports and entertainment industry. It is headquartered in New York, and is led and governed by an outspoken and successful CEO and a blue-chip board of directors. Several directors are household names and have been on the board for many years, knowing each other in social and professional circles. One director had been on the board for 28 years, the second-longest-serving director had been on the board for 24 years, and so on. The shortest-serving director's tenure was seven years. It was an all-male board, known fondly among a few directors as “the good ol' boys.”

Governance and decision making were informal, and almost always by consensus. By externally viewing Chessfield, it would be difficult to glean that it had any governance shortcomings whatsoever. It had a majority of directors who were current or former CEOs, a separate chair, and other independent directors from prestigious New York professional services firms. It had three committees that were all composed of independent directors. The size of the board was 10 members. Chessfield appeared to comply at least in letter with all applicable governance regulations in place at the time.

What is your opinion of the governance regulation of Chessfield? In what ways should governance regulation improve, given the above?