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.