eli5: How do corporate Boards of Directors work? What is their function? Do they get a salary? Isn’t there a conflict of interest if a CEO of one company is on the board of another company? Do all companies have them? If not, which companies have them and why?
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The job of the board is to represent the interests of the shareholders (ie the owners). They are appointed by the shareholders and often one or two members will be some of the largest shareholders themselves.
They would typically be paid quite well but only for a small number of hours a year, just covering the various meetings and any other ad hoc duties they might do.
There are two ways to avoid conflicts of interest: do not appoint people who have conflicts, or simply ignore the issue like in lots of other aspects of business!
Edit: their job is oversight of the executives of the business; appointing the officers, setting strategy, scrutinising accounts and reports etc. Guiding the business and ensuring it is being run in a way that the shareholders approve of (ie profitably).
Other organisations like charities have boards which have a very similar function, but don’t represent shareholders in the same way.
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