… Hofstra University … saw a board member, 1960 graduate Bernard Madoff, arrested for fraud. It … escaped financial consequences. The school … has a ban on investing with board members.
“Not a cent,” said Stuart Vincent, Hofstra’s assistant vice president for university relations. “There is a policy on our board that none of our trustees are allowed to do business with the university. It wasn’t just happenstance.”
Other nonprofits weren’t so lucky. Board members such as Madoff and those who channeled money to him made nonprofits casualties of both bad investments and faulty board policies.
Madoff was treasurer of the board of trustees at Yeshiva University, which lost more than $14 million after fellow board member J. Ezra Merkin, chair of the board’s investment committee, funneled money to him…
March 29th, 2009 at 10:10AM
We likewise have such a policy, and it is rigidly enforced, except when the trustees don’t want to. The main contractors on $50 million in construction over the last ten years have nearly all been members of our board. The auditor, Paul Peachfuzz, says not to worry, though. Some conflicts are more conflictier than others, and this one is not worrisome.