Not at all. At least in Australia, loads of companies have outside “trophy” chairs or directors who don’t own shares, and just earn a wage; it’s an arrangement

Not at all. At least in Australia, loads of companies have outside “trophy” chairs or directors who don’t own shares, and just earn a wage; it’s an arrangement that is intended to effectively buy prestige for the company. This may be because shares must typically be declared and taxed as income at the time of issue, which means there’s a significant out of pocket cost to the recipient, and which probably makes it more common for non shareholder directors than in the US? I’m just speculating, but the situation is pretty stupid here. There were some reforms a few years ago, but they didn’t go far enough.