To the Point

Disney, Eisner, Martha Stewart and the End of the Imperial CEO

Walt Disney-s Michael Eisner isn-t the only one. Some 30 percent of America-s publicly held companies have split the jobs of president and chair of the board. At the same time, executive salaries and bonuses are still out of sight, even at companies with falling stock prices and thousands of layoffs. That-s led to predictions that shareholder outrage is about to catch up with executive greed and arrogance. Are more big companies in for proxy battles this year? What have Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, Adelphia and Martha Stewart had to do with it? We look at what may be the end of the imperial CEO with Wall Street watchers, and management and investment consultants, including one who for years advised against buying stock in Enron, and another at the California Public Employees- Retirement System, which is a major Disney investor. Making News: US Marines Kill Gunman at Ambush in Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide today called for peace in violence-torn Port-au-Prince, but at his first news conference from exile in Africa, the former president said he remains Haiti's democratically elected leader. Also today, US Marines confirmed they killed one Haitian gunman during yesterday-s violence. Carole Williams, who's in Haiti for the Los Angeles Times, reports on Aristide's provocative message and the violence that led to yesterday's killing. Reporter's Notebook: Black Market for Body Parts UCLA was one of the first of 154 American medical centers to establish -willed body programs,- whereby donated cadavers are made available for education and research. Now, an alleged middleman has told the Los Angeles Times he cut up 800 of UCLA-s cadavers over the past six years and sold them to -giant- medical research companies. The Times' Alan Zarembo says illegal traffic in human tissue could be worth $500 million a year.