Independence is a foundational principal in corporate governance. Many good governance proponents would argue that corporate boards should be comprised primarily of outside directors who meet the legal definition of independence. In laypersons’ terms, this means they are free of any conflicts of interest that would prevent them from discharging their fiduciary responsibilities to the company’s owners. Likewise, many governance experts would say that splitting the chair and CEO roles between two individuals also is a best practice. In this instance, the chair would be an independent director who focused their attention on managing the board, while the CEO ran...