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Outside directors of ExxonMobil are among the highest-paid board members in the world. Each earned well over $300,000 in compensation from the giant oil company in 2006.

And that’s only part of the story.

Because of ExxonMobil’s strong stock, if the directors’ 2007 compensation were calculated based on today’s share prices, it would total about $500,000 apiece.

That may be one reason why ExxonMobil changed its non-employee director pay last week, reducing the annual award of restricted stock from 4,000 shares to 2,500 shares apiece, beginning next year. The company also increased cash payments to each director to $100,000 from $75,000, while eliminating smaller payments for some committee duties.

When ExxonMobil filed its annual proxy statement in April, it put the value of 4,000 restricted shares at $230,680, or $57.67 a share, about the price at the end of 2006. ExxonMobil stock closed Friday, the end of the third quarter, at about $92.50, making 4,000 shares worth $370,000. At current prices, 2,500 shares are worth about $231,000.

Directors are paid regular dividends on their restricted shares, but can’t sell them, generally, until they retire from the board.

At current prices, three directors (Marilyn Carlson Nelson, William Howell and Philip Lippincott) hold restricted shares worth more than $4 million. Nelson is CEO of Carlson Companies, Howell is chairman emeritus of J.C. Penney and Lippincott is the retired chair of Scott Paper and Campbell Soup.

Four other directors (Michael Boskin, James Houghton, Reatha Clark King and Walter Shipley) hold restricted shares worth $3.5 million or more. Boskin is a professor at the Hoover Institution, Houghton is former chairman of Corning, King is former chairman of the General Mills Foundation, and Shipley is retired chairman of Chase Manhattan.

When Sam Palmisano, CEO of IBM, joined the ExxonMobil board last year, he received a one-time grant of 8,000 restricted shares, like all of the company’s new directors. At the time, those shares were valued at $484,640. At today’s prices, those shares are worth $740,000.

Of course, the directors’ highly paid part-time jobs go with the territory. They are helping lead one of the largest commercial enterprises in the world. At the end of third quarter, ExxonMobil had a market cap of about $510 billion, equal to the combined market caps of Microsoft, Google and eBay.

It can be easy to get excited about high tech, but never under estimate the power of $80-a-barrel oil.

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At first glance, the business plan hatched by Raffaello Follieri and his father, Pasquale, would make lemonade from lemons.

The Italian father and son founded the Follieri Group in 2003 to purchase underused Catholic Church properties in the United States.

Follieri, a member of Legatus, the Catholic organization of CEOs, told the National Catholic Reporter that two trends sparked the company’s interest in church-owned real estate. American dioceses, in financial crisis because of the widespread sex abuse scandals, were forced to sell holdings to pay lawsuit settlements. And the church’s shifting demographics, with Catholics moving out of the cities, left many empty churches and schools in urban areas.

According to the company’s web site, the Follieri Group intended to renovate the sites as low- and middle-income housing, community centers, places of worship, offices and retail spaces. The Follieris also formed a foundation to help surrounding communities and third-world countries.

The plan drew support from heavy hitters. The Wall Street Journal reports today that Bill Clinton’s personal aide, Douglas Band, helped Raffaello Follieri find investors. Yucaipa Companies, a California firm where Clinton has been an adviser, agreed to put as much as $100 million into the venture.

However, things have gone terribly sour. Ron Burkle, Yucaipa managing partner and a friend of Clinton, has sued Follieri in Delaware state court, claiming misappropriation of $1.3 million. The lawsuit accuses Follieri of using the money to enjoy a lavish lifestyle that included an expensive penthouse and a private chef.

Follieri denies the allegations. The Journal reports that he’s now looking for new investors.

([Muckety](https://createpositivechange.org/2007/09/26/follieri-venture-turns-sour/26)

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Members of the International Peace Operations Association will have plenty to talk about at their October summit in Washington.

The trade group with the Orwellian name is an association of private military contractors, including besieged Blackwater USA, which faces investigations abroad and at home.

The association was formed in 2001, and has grown rapidly with the increased use of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its mission is to “promote high operational and ethical standards of firms active in the peace and stability industry.” One of its stated aims is to combat the perception that its members are war profiteers.

“Although we have come a long way, there is still an unfortunate level of suspicion leveled at the private sector in our field,” association President Doug Brooks wrote in the May edition of the group’s journal. “Effective stability and peace operations require a proactive and engaged private sector with appropriate rules, transparency and oversight.”

The industry is likely to get much more oversight than it bargained for, in the wake of the recent deaths of Iraqi civilians fired upon by Blackwater guards.

As the Associated Press reports today, North Carolina Democratic Rep. David Price has been trying for years to strengthen regulation of private contractors. The GOP-controlled Congress wasn’t interested, he said.

Price has proposed legislation requiring government contractors to be covered by federal criminal codes. His bill would also establish FBI investigative units in war zones.

But another Democrat, House Oversight Committee chairman Henry Waxman has promised hearings on Blackwater, calling the shootings “an unfortunate demonstration of the perils of excessive reliance on private security contractors.”

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