Corporate Boards’ Zombie Problem Proves Persistent but Curable

So-called zombie directors are hard to eliminate.

Public company directors become zombies when they get elected without support from at least half of voting investors. Even though the number of directors losing the vote has fallen since 2015, the portion that sit on the board as zombies, rather than stepping down, has stayed pretty much the same, according to a recent Proxy Insight analysis of U.S.-listed companies.

“I think what’s happened is that some companies have gotten more responsive” and are warding off shareholder discontent before votes are even cast, said Ken Bertsch, executive director of the Council of Institutional ...