Some board members - including Erickson and James F. Pitts, a vice president at Northrop Grumman Corp., said yesterday that they disagreed with what they perceived to be a shift in board governance that would diminish the body's effectiveness. Both resigned yesterday.
Erickson, founder of Erickson Retirement Communities, said O'Malley's move to install his own board nominees would lead to "short-term political thinking" by the board rather than long-range planning. "When you pass that decision to someone in Annapolis, I don't think that's the best process," he said.
He added that some of the board's problems lie in tensions with the university representatives, who want more influence over picking the new leadership and believe their capital projects should get priority when the board allocates funding. "If you look at the history of medical systems across the country, a huge number of failures come from a lack of independence on how you allocate capital," Erickson said.
