On May 7, the NASD announced that venture capitalist Arthur Rock of San Francisco-based Arthur Rock & Co., was elected to the NASD board of governors to replace Bridget Macaskill of Oppenheimer Funds in New York. Rock will take Macaskills spot as one of the 14 non-industry board members for the remainder of this year.
According to a spokesperson for Oppenheimer Funds, Macaskill had a scheduling conflict with fund meetings and NASD board meetings, and it was just about her time to come off the board.
An NASDR spokesperson says its standard procedure that when a board member leaves, a new member is nominated by the nominating committee and elected by the board of governors.
But the appointment of Rock helped stir an ongoing controversy between the NASD and its small-firm members.
Don Brooks, head of the California Association of Independent Broker/Dealers, is upset that small firms didnt have input in Rocks election. Ninety percent of the [NASD] membership gets shut out, he says. Its sad. I never heard of him. I dont know whether he represents me. I dont know what his views are. I dont know when he joined the NASD. Nobody knows.
Rock is, however, well known in the high-tech industry and may help Nasdaq gain new technology listings--as well as make sure Intel remains an OTC stock. Rock was one of the founders of Intel, and a past chairman of Intels board of directors where he still sits. In addition, Rock has served as a director at Xerox, Teledyne, Apple Computer, Argonaut Insurance Group, Echelon and Air Touch Communications.
The NASD National Nominating Committee, which put Rocks name to the full NASD board, is chaired by Daniel Tully, former chairman of Merrill Lynch and includes H. Furlong Baldwin, CEO, Mercantile Bankshares Corp.; Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., managing partner, Patton Boggs, LLP; John Chalsty, president & CEO, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Inc.; Alfred Osborne Jr., director of the Entrepreneurial Studies Center, John E. Anderson School of Management at UCLA; and Richard Romano, president, Romano Bros. & Co