have a responsibility to hold the executive management accountable for their actions. The detailed function of company boards differs slightly between countries and different companies sometimes have different bylaws. The smallest Boards can contain only three or four people, but some companies have extended the representation to over thirty individuals. In my experience, Boards in the US tend to be smaller affairs than their European counterparts. Often, only the CEO and CFO attend the meeting as executive representatives, while the rest of the places are occupied by non-executive members. It is generally considered good practice in corporate governance for the non-executives to outnumber executive members of the Board. In the UK, Boards are often larger with key business representatives joining the executive representation. In Europe, members of the workers’ councils also attend Board meetings.
