Corporate Executives

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - He doesn't have the charisma of Venezuela's populist president, Hugo Chavez, or the compelling life story of leftist struggle and sacrifice that Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva can claim. But President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina is outdoing both of them when it comes to willingness to play hardball with international bankers and corporate executives. A longtime Patagonian governor who became president in 2003 after months of political uncertainty in the wake of Argentina's economic collapse, Kirchner has made the defense of the country's sovereignty in the face of foreign interests a central theme of his presidency.

When Bank of America credit officer Dan Petrik and his team sat down in early 2007 to analyze Sam Zell's plan to take control of Tribune Co., their numbers showed that the complex deal failed to meet five of the bank's 10 lending guidelines. There was too much borrowed money, too little collateral and the overall risk rating that BofA assigned to the transaction was below what the bank liked to see, according to its preliminary analysis. Petrik had never worked on a deal so weighed down by debt.

NEW YORK - Corporate executives, led by Microsoft Corp. officers, boosted their stock sales in the first half of the year by 68 percent from the comparable period last year, to a record $36.5 billion. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen led the sellers by disposing of $4 billion in shares, as the software maker's shares fell 30 percent this year. Allen, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, and other executives accounted for 12 percent of all insider sales, according to the Washington Service research firm.

Mark Fetting's departure from Legg Mason is a major blow to the city ("Legg Mason CEO to step down," Sept. 11). Under his leadership no corporation has been more committed to improving the city than Legg Mason, even though Baltimore is blessed with some very public spirited CEOs. Mark is a native Baltimorean with a unique commitment to implement the community obligations of a major business. This perspective is increasingly rare among America's corporate executives. It was a banner day for our city when Legg Mason's board selected him as CEO. We can only be grateful that we received the benefit of five years of his leadership and hope that his tenure is seen as a model by other CEOs.

When Bank of America credit officer Dan Petrik and his team sat down in early 2007 to analyze Sam Zell's plan to take control of Tribune Co., their numbers showed that the complex deal failed to meet five of the bank's 10 lending guidelines. There was too much borrowed money, too little collateral and the overall risk rating that BofA assigned to the transaction was below what the bank liked to see, according to its preliminary analysis. Petrik had never worked on a deal so weighed down by debt.

CEOS: Nearly 60 percent of the nation's top corporate executives -- including chief executive officers, partners, owners, presidents, chairmen and principals -- are in their 40s or 50s, says Dun & Bradstreet, the business information company. Dun & Bradstreet found 29.4 percent of top executives are 40 or over, while 29.9 percent are in their 50s, 17.9 percent in their 60s, 7.4 percent in their 70s and 1.6 percent are octogenarians.TPI: The cost of travel has been rising at a much faster clip than overall inflation, according to the Travel Industry of Association.

Mark Fetting's departure from Legg Mason is a major blow to the city ("Legg Mason CEO to step down," Sept. 11). Under his leadership no corporation has been more committed to improving the city than Legg Mason, even though Baltimore is blessed with some very public spirited CEOs. Mark is a native Baltimorean with a unique commitment to implement the community obligations of a major business. This perspective is increasingly rare among America's corporate executives. It was a banner day for our city when Legg Mason's board selected him as CEO. We can only be grateful that we received the benefit of five years of his leadership and hope that his tenure is seen as a model by other CEOs.

WASHINGTON - In a rare public appearance, the chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Henry M. Paulson Jr., called yesterday for changes in how public companies are run, audited and regulated to help restore investor confidence. Paulson said faith in corporate executives is at a low and is forestalling a recovery in financial markets. He proposed several measures to rebuild trust, including restrictions on the ability of chief executives to sell shares in their companies. Tracing the crisis to the collapse of Enron Corp.

Zillah Ingram taught her ninth-grade class at Wilde Lake High School in suburban Columbia about the global economy. She showed students how much it costs to make a pair of sneakers overseas and the huge markup that consumers in industrial nations are willing to pay. The students, some of whom would readily pay $100 for a basketball jersey, weren't immediately impressed. "They're just so caught up in the materialism that they're spending whatever they have to be in style," the history teacher said, the same motive that has led adults to act wrongly or criminally in the cases that toppled Enron Corp.

In the recession, high salaries and other compensation for corporate executives have become controversial. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered publicly owned companies to give shareholders the right to voice an opinion how much their executives are paid. Two Maryland companies, Bell Atlantic and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., were among 10 major U.S. companies affected by the ruling.The Evening Sun would like to know if you think investors should have a say in the salaries for executives.

The BWI Business Partnership will host its September Signature breakfast, Wednesday, Sept. 19, from 7:45 to 9:15 a.m., at Four Points by Sheraton BWI Airport, 1001 Scott Drive, in Linthicum. Calvin Butler, senior vice president for corporate affairs for Exelon Corporation, with be the featured speaker. Exelon is the parent company of BGE, ComEd in Chicago, PECO in Philadelphia and Exelon Generation. Butler has been the face of Exelon in Maryland since the energy giant purchase Constellation Energy in March and is charged with raising business support for the company.

It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that Chick-fil-A CEO Dan T. Cathy is an opponent of gay marriage or that he has donated to the cause. The family-owned chain has a strong tradition of conservative Christian leadership - it's no coincidence that the restaurants aren't open on Sundays. It should also not have come as much of a surprise to Mr. Cathy that his recent public comments about his stance would cause a backlash at a time when public opinion polls show a steadily growing acceptance of the idea of gay marriage among American voters.

On one side of the Baltimore metropolitan area, the southeastern side, we have 10 corporate executives picking over the bones of a bankrupt steel mill while asking for $20 million in pallbearer bonuses. Across the map, on the northwestern side of Baltimore County, we have politicians, developers and lawyers planning what continues to pass for economic development: more places for people to spend their diminishing disposable dollars. And in the middle, we have educators announcing the results of their work with children who will inherit a world transformed.

Republicans have morality upside down. They're condemning gay marriage, abortion, access to contraception, and the wall separating church and state. But the moral crisis in America isn't a breakdown in private morality. It's a breakdown in public morality. What Americans do in their bedrooms is their own business. What corporate executives and Wall Street financiers do in boardrooms and executive suites affects all of us. We're living through a new Gilded Age of financial fraud and conflicts of interest; exorbitant pay to executives, traders, hedge-fund and private-equity managers; tax loopholes that allow them to pay a lower rate than many middle-class Americans; and legalized bribery of public officials through unlimited campaign "donations.

Have the obscenely large compensation packages for corporate executives become so unpopular that President Bush felt compelled to attack the business community that has long been a key ally? Or, more likely, has Mr. Bush himself fallen so low in national esteem that he believes his rehabilitation depends on at least a bow to the middle-class concerns to which the new Democratic majority in Congress has dedicated itself? Either way, Mr. Bush arrived belatedly this week at an issue that's been festering for most of his presidency.

In an era when our media and even our education system exalt emotions while ignoring facts and logic, perhaps we should not be surprised that so many people explain economics by "greed." Today, there are adults - including educated adults - who explain multimillion-dollar corporate executives' salaries as resulting from "greed." Think about it: I could become so greedy that I wanted a fortune twice the size of Bill Gates' - but this greed would not increase my income by one cent. If you want to explain why some people have astronomical incomes, it cannot be simply because of their desires - whether "greedy" or not - but because of what other people are willing to pay them.

To hear Mannie Jackson tell it, the feature film about the Harlem Globetrotters will be a cross between "Rudy" and "Malcolm X.""It's going to be a blockbuster," Mr. Jackson said of the Columbia Pictures project, tentatively titled "Showtime," blessed with a $50 million to $75 million budget and due out in 1997.Mr. Jackson, the Globetrotters' first African-American owner, is intent on providing the Globetrotters' story with a happy ending.In 1993, Mr. Jackson, 56, formed a partnership that purchased the Globetrotters for $6 million from the bankrupt Minneapolis-based International Broadcasting Co., rescuing the team from declining revenues and attendance and infusing it with new blood, innovative concepts and Mr. Jackson's own corporate vision.

As companies continue to drop pensions that have afforded generations of workers a comfortable retirement, a chorus of financial experts warns that workers must learn to save for themselves. But as with admonitions to exercise more and eat less, many workers aren't heeding the advice. One recent survey revealed that one-fifth of Americans think their best shot at amassing several hundred thousand dollars is to win the lottery. And that's far short of the $1 million that some financial planners say baby boomers will need.

Darlene D. McCullough, a Baltimore photographer and scuba diver whose underwater photography received national attention, died of cancer May 11 at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. She was 48 and a longtime resident of White Hall in Baltimore County. The former Darlene Dawson was born in Baltimore and raised in Cockeysville and White Hall. She was a 1974 graduate of Hereford High School and earned a bachelor's degree in theater arts in 1978 from what is now Frostburg State University. She became a stage manager at Kings Dominion amusement park in Virginia, and later at the Baltimore Opera Co. and Cockpit in Court Theater.