The value of financial outside directors on corporate boards

The appointment of a financial outside director to the board of a public corporation is associated with positive abnormal returns, attributable entirely to the smaller than median-size firms in our sample. In addition, investment bankers are appointed to the boards of much smaller companies, on average, than commercial bankers or insurance executives. These results suggest that smaller firms, which may have limited access to financial markets and less financial expertise, benefit substantially from these appointments.