Chapter 16 - I TRY TO CHANGE THE FOUNDATION BOARD
My next mistake was subtler.
I nominated three people for the Cultural Foundation board.
All excellent.
All aligned with me.
Too aligned.
Patricia, the director, called.
“Are you stacking the board?”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“I’m improving governance.”
“With your estate attorney, your company’s retired CFO, and Caroline’s college roommate?”
I looked at the nominations.
Bad.
Fear again.
I wanted to guarantee no future Lenora could control the archive.
So I was building my own control.
I withdrew two names.
Left one candidate because she had genuine museum-governance experience and no financial relationship with me.
The nominating committee considered her normally.
She was elected months later.
Not my bloc.
There was no bloc.
Good.
The Foundation adopted committee term limits.
Independent archival standards.
May you like
Conflict-of-interest rules for family-history projects.
Those reforms mattered more than loyal directors.
