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Investing

America’s Worst Directors–Gary M. Pfeiffer Of The Talbots

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

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Gary M. Pfeiffer holds a remarkable number of important jobs on the board of directors of retailer The Talbots. He is chairman, head of the compensation committee, and a member of the corporate governance and nominating committee. He has been a member of the board since 2004 a period over which the The Talbots has gone through an unprecedented collapse of its business and economic fortunes. The firm’s stock has dropped over 80% during the last five years.

Matters at The Talbots have only gotten worse recently. Same-store sales for the period which ended on April 31 were down 7.7%. The figure is actually worse because it does not include stores which will be closed.

The Talbots posted a drop in revenue in the last quarter to $310 million compared to $321 million in the same quarter a year ago. The company only made $1.1 million. Comments about second quarter prospects sent the stock plunging.

Pfeiffer was on the board when Trudy Sullivan joined The Talbots as president and CEO in August 2007.  In light of his position, he was obviously key in her selection.

The compensation committee recommended and the board supported that Sullivan get a 2010 pay package of $6.3 million in 2010, much higher than in the previous two years. Pfeiffer made $177,000 for the same period.

Pfeiffer’s support of management and Sullivan large pay package is shameful.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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