There will always be a population comprised of a who's-who in industry sitting on corporate boards. That doesn't make it automatically a bad thing. It would be nice to see correlating statistics demonstrating that such relationships result in measurable differences - particularly in the grey areas around conflicts of interest or other ethical issues.

The best new hope in corporate board reform is the Sarbanes-Oxley act, which makes boardmembers (allegedly) accountable for their actions.