Much of our turnaround success has been due to the diligent and highly professional work of our board of directors and the guidance and wisdom they have brought.
One of our first turnaround goals was to establish a tone of best-practice accountability, transparency, and ethical compliance from the very top of the organization. We created the role of corporate governance officer, and after a national search, hired Kim Rucker. She and her team have reformed board practices and company policies to assure regulatory compliance, effective approval structures, transparency, and good balance between management and the board. The board has also recruited four new high-caliber, independent directors. Today, the TXU board is a much more effective, sophisticated, and capable group. They are far more independent with a breadth of experience and professional diversity that we couldn’t do without as we meet challenges and make decisions outside our traditional industry environment.
As with TXU’s management team, the board has provided strong counsel in many areas essential to the success of our turnaround. With his background as former chief financial officer at Centex, Lel Echols, one of TXU’s new board members, is a master at restructuring, risks, controls, and governance. We’ve called on Kerney Laday’s management consulting and career in customer operations at Xerox for advice on how to make our customer service and governance best in class. As our lead director, Jack Little’s deep experience at Shell has provided invaluable insight into commodities, construction, risks, and worldwide energy markets. Gerry Lopez, who joined our board last year, brings incredible expertise about people, innovative people systems, public policy, and social responsibility from his years at Starbucks and other high-performance cultures. Jim Oesterreicher’s career at JCPenney gave him the expertise to be a true leader in marketing and human performance, two key areas of successful companies. His years on Wall Street with leading investment banks and private equity have made Michael Ranger the go-to person for deep industry, finance, and strategy knowledge as well as business transformations. Len Roberts, another new independent director, brings great savvy from RadioShack about marketing, public relations, human resources, and innovation. With his background at Texaco, Chevron, and United Airlines, Glenn Tilton, our fourth new director, is a true turnaround expert, with expertise in commodities, risks, public policy, and restructuring.
Finally, I want to thank Dr. Gail de Planque for her years of dedicated service to the board. As a consultant to the energy and nuclear industries and a former commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gail brought a rare depth of industry and technical knowledge. I know I speak for the board in expressing appreciation for the opportunity to work with and learn from Gail. All the TXU directors have my sincerest appreciation for their contribution to TXU’s turnaround success. Each of them has enlarged my vision and deepened my knowledge.
