Allen Misher, president of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, says of his work on corporate boards, "The quality of the people I deal with, the intellectual interactions, are extremely important to me and highly enjoyable. It gives me an opportunity to deal on a scientific basis with people at the forefront of their disciplines. It's even fun on a personal basis."
While the scientists who are asked to serve on corporate boards find the experience to be enriching from a professional as well as a financial perspective, some outside observers caution that such arrangements can lead to dangerous conflicts of interest. "In [a] company, the interest is in getting a product to market," says Sheldon Krimsky, a professor and chairman of the department of urban and environmental policy at Tufts University. "In the university, presumably, the main interest is the pursuit of truth."
A conflict can occur, for ...
