????沃爾瑪的15位董事會成員中有10位是獨立董事。與該公司直接相關的有五位，包括杜克、斯考特以及沃爾頓家族的三名成員，羅伯?沃爾頓以及他的弟弟吉姆?沃爾頓和女婿格里高利?潘納爾。潘納爾曾經在沃爾瑪日本分公司工作過。沃爾瑪的首席執行官和董事長職位是分離的，董事長職務由羅伯?沃爾頓擔任。

????公司治理評級機構GMI公司的高級助理研究員保羅?霍奇森表示，家族成員擔任董事能夠強化公司的業績，因為他們對于企業成功的追求通常與公司股東是相一致的。他補充說道，除了沃爾頓家族的三人，從沃爾瑪司的企業規模來看，其外部董事所占比例還是很高的。

????研究企業治理的田納西大學教授拉瑞?福沃爾表示，“么是獨立董事會，什么是真正的外部董事，要對此進行定義是非常困難的。” 他表示，在沃爾瑪至少一半董事都與沃爾瑪以外的公司有關。

????沃爾瑪年收益4,470億美元，在2011年財富五百強排名第一位。對于沃爾瑪這樣的超大型企業來說，很難找到一位來自一家并未與沃爾瑪有任何方面業務合作的公司的董事會成員人選。但這些董事的社會關系還是有必要加以說明的。沃爾瑪在委托書里也對此進行了解釋。

????沃爾瑪指出，Accel Partners公司的吉姆?布雷耶直接或間接擁有社交媒體平臺公司Kosmix不到3%的股份，而后者是沃爾瑪于2011年收購的企業。Accel公司某基金擁有Kosmix公司超過15%的股份，在此次收購中獲得3,570萬美元。該委托書還表示，布雷耶是獨立董事中的首席董事，他并未參與沃爾瑪挑選Kosmix公司作為收購目標的過程，而且也回避了相關的討論。

????GMI公司的霍奇森在電子郵件中寫道，“他是一位風險投資家，因此，他更有可能對沃爾瑪有意收購意的公司進行直接或間接投資。這并不是說布雷耶的獨立性不會受到潛在影響，恰恰相反，這正好可以解釋為什么這種情況可能會發生。”

????沃爾瑪還與那些其董事會成員參與管理的公司進行業務合作。董事米歇爾?伯恩斯在2011年10月之前擔任美世咨詢公司（Mercer）首席執行官。該公司收到364萬美元作為2012財年的咨詢服務費。此外，沃爾瑪董事阿恩?索倫森是萬豪國際集團（Marriott International）首席執行官，沃爾瑪公司曾支付給該集團1,900萬美元作為“酒店、住宿和相關服務”費。萬豪集團曾經花100萬美元從沃爾瑪采購。

????霍奇森表示，“如果你具有完全的獨立性，你應該更容易提出質疑。但如果1,900萬美元的業務取決于你在沃爾瑪的立場，就沒那么容易了。”

????譯者：李玫曉/汪皓

????Wal-Mart lists 10 of its 15 directors as independent. The five with direct connections to the company are Duke, Scott, and three members of the Walton family -- Rob Walton, his brother Jim Walton, and Rob Walton's son-in-law Gregory Penner, who previously worked for Wal-Mart in Japan. While Wal-Mart does split its CEO and chairman roles, Rob Walton, not an independent director, holds the chairman position.

????Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at corporate governance ratings agency GMI, says that family members as directors can reinforce a company's performance because their concerns for success are often aligned with those of shareholders. But beyond the Waltons, he added, there's a high proportion of what he called outside-related directors for a company of Wal-Mart's size.

????"When you truly start looking at what is an independent board, what truly is an outside director, the way you define it is really difficult," says Larry Fauver, a professor at the University of Tennessee who focuses on governance. He noted that at Wal-Mart at least half the directors have a connection to the company beyond the board.

????Wal-Mart's scale, $447 billion in revenue and No. 1 on the 2011 Fortune 500 list, does make it hard to find a board member candidate who is affiliated with a company that doesn't do business with the retail giant in some capacity. But the directors' relationships are worth pointing out -- which Wal-Mart does in its proxy.

????The company noted that Accel's Jim Breyer owned directly and indirectly less than 3% of Kosmix, which Wal-Mart acquired in 2011; certain Accel Funds owned more than 15% of Kosmix and received about $35.7 million in the transaction. The proxy stated that Breyer, who serves as presiding director when the independent board members meet, was not involved in Wal-Mart's identification of Kosmix as an acquisition target and recused himself from all discussions.

????"He is a venture capitalist so it becomes more likely that he has some kind of direct or indirect investment in a wide range of companies that might be acquired by Wal-Mart," Hodgson of GMI said in an email. "That's not to say it doesn't potentially compromise his independence, but it does explain how it might happen."

????Wal-Mart also does business with companies where its board members are officers. Until October 2011, director Michele Burns was CEO of Mercer, which received $3.64 million for consulting services in fiscal 2012. Additionally, Wal-Mart director Arne Sorenson is CEO of Marriott International, which received $19 million from Wal-Mart for "hotel, lodging, and related services." Marriott paid Wal-Mart $1 million for purchases.

????"If you are fully independent," says Hodgson, "it's much easier for you to raise questions than if $19 million of business is riding on your staying in Wal-Mart's good books."