Wiktionary
n. a group of people, elected by stockholders, to establish corporate policies, and make management decisions
WordNet
n. a group of persons chosen to govern the affairs of a corporation or other large institution [syn: directorate]
Wikipedia
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization, which can include a non-profit organization or a government agency or corporation. A board of directors' activities are determined by the powers, duties, and responsibilities delegated to it or conferred on it by an authority outside itself. These matters are typically detailed in the organization's constitution and bylaws. These documents commonly also specify the number of members of the board, how they are to be chosen, and how often they are to meet. However, the constitution and bylaws rarely address a board's powers when faced with a corporate turnaround, restructuring, or emergencies, where board members need to act as agents of change in addition to their traditional fiduciary responsibilities.
In an organization with voting members, the board acts on behalf of, and is subordinate to, the organization's full group, which usually chooses the members of the board. In a stock corporation, the board is elected by the shareholders and is the highest authority in the management of the corporation. The board of directors appoints the Chief Executive Officer of the corporation and sets out the overall strategic direction. In a non-stock corporation with no general voting membership, the board is the supreme governing body of the institution; its members are sometimes chosen by the board itself.
Usage examples of "board of directors".
Devine, just retired as NSA's deputy director for technology and systems, to its board of directors.
Was it ever mentioned to the board of directors that we were doing any such survey?
Don't you see that you've just blown me off the board of directors?
It is no comfort to a man to think of himself as a feeble fool, secretary to a dummy board of directors, and burdened with an exhausting task.
In the face of such evidence not even the League's bureaucracies could protect the enormous corporation, and it had already collapsed, the value of its stock plummeting, a third of its board of directors already under indictment, and half of those not indicted-yet-turning state's evidence in an effort to save their own skins.
You now have two-thirds of the Board of Directors of this place ordering you to produce our three children.
John I extended his house, planted an orchard of cherry trees, became the first Chairman when Widdershins adopted Rule by Board of Directors, and died aged 301.
You have been selected by the board of directors for your biographical entry in the exclusive new volume Five Thousand Important American Men?
He had done predawn surgery, visited half a dozen patients and then walked out of a Board of Directors* meeting at the hospital in order to fly to Athens for the trial.
With this in mind, her board of directors had strongly advised against the purchase of Sea Exploration and Development's OTEC patents and factories.
AEI's board of directors reads like a Who's Who of the spook world, including former CIA officials George Clairmont and Howard Hebert, and CIA lawyer Mitch Rogovin, who was George Bush's legal counsel when he was Director of the Agency.
The only recommendation I have heard of the latest appointee to the Board of Directors is that he is one of the richest men in the movement.