Directors, Corporate

Corporate directors are the elected representatives of shareholders, put in place to safeguard the interests of the investors who bear the residual financial risk of their firms. They make up one third of the corporate governance triumvirate of executives, investors, and directors. Corporate governance examines the roles of each of these groups, along with their interrelationships and their balance of power. Through most of the 20th century, directors in the United States held significantly more power than did diffused shareholders, although much less than the corporations' CEOs.