General Authorities and Positions on Boards

[K-dog]

I've heard from time to time that General Authorities were not allowed to maintain seats on Boards of companies. I've also heard the opposite. Recently, I found out from a person I trust not only what the story is (GAs are not allowed on boards) but how it came about. The following was related to me via a person who had first hand knowledge of the events related.

Spencer W. Kimball was the Chairman of the Board of Directors for a company called Upland, Co. The company was the owner and manager of all Union Pacific real property holdings (thus Union Pacific Land, Co. or Upland, Co.) A member of the LDS Church, at the time, was a key cog in the creation of the Nevada Gaming Control Commission. The NGC, in an effort to drive mobsters out of Las Vegas gaming, was preparing to perform background checks on all casino owners and the landlords of casinos. The report would become public on who owned what casinos and who sat on the boards of what casinos, as well as their landlords. This member then noticed that the Union Plaza Hotel and Casino was either (1) owned by Upland, Co. or (2) the underlying property was owned by Upland, Co. This member, realizing how embarrassing this would be for the Church to have their prophet lumped in with gangsters and gambling, contacted his cousin (who was known to have GA connections). The cousin contacted Elder Perry's office. The brethren were notified, and they determined that all General Authorities had to resign from board positions or allow those seats to be managed by a trustee. The Church even created an organization to manage such things.

Now you know the story about when Spencer Kimball owned a casino.

[MikeWaters]

it looks bad IMO, even if it is not associated with crime or sin-industries.

because it appears to be church leaders trading on their positions in the church for money. which is pretty close to the definition of priest-craft.

[BYU71]

Originally Posted by K-dog

I've heard from time to time that General Authorities were not allowed to maintain seats on Boards of companies. I've also heard the opposite. Recently, I found out from a person I trust not only what the story is (GAs are not allowed on boards) but how it came about. The following was related to me via a person who had first hand knowledge of the events related.

Spencer W. Kimball was the Chairman of the Board of Directors for a company called Upland, Co. The company was the owner and manager of all Union Pacific real property holdings (thus Union Pacific Land, Co. or Upland, Co.) A member of the LDS Church, at the time, was a key cog in the creation of the Nevada Gaming Control Commission. The NGC, in an effort to drive mobsters out of Las Vegas gaming, was preparing to perform background checks on all casino owners and the landlords of casinos. The report would become public on who owned what casinos and who sat on the boards of what casinos, as well as their landlords. This member then noticed that the Union Plaza Hotel and Casino was either (1) owned by Upland, Co. or (2) the underlying property was owned by Upland, Co. This member, realizing how embarrassing this would be for the Church to have their prophet lumped in with gangsters and gambling, contacted his cousin (who was known to have GA connections). The cousin contacted Elder Perry's office. The brethren were notified, and they determined that all General Authorities had to resign from board positions or allow those seats to be managed by a trustee. The Church even created an organization to manage such things.

Now you know the story about when Spencer Kimball owned a casino.

I think the practice now is to give important positions at corporations to children of the Brethern.

[hyrum]

Originally Posted by BYU71

I think the practice now is to give important positions at corporations to children of the Brethern.

The mob has come up with similar practices, I'm sure.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by Adam

This story might be true in essence, but false in the fact that General Authorities served on corporate boards into the 90s. Stephen Nadauld was a 70 who was on the board of a corporation which many officers and some directors went to jail and/or paid large criminal penalties. Nadauld paid a lot of money and it embarrassed the church. He was released and they made to policy that no GAs were allowed on boards.

Maybe the SWK story was about removing the President of the Church from boards but GAs were allowed to continue after that?

Yes, it is a relatively recent policy. I remember reading an archived news report about it. I think it may have been the late 1990s it was done away with.