Family member nominated to a shrinking board; therapist said expert on family-controlled firms

The board of directors said today it has nominated Ochs-Sulzberger family member Carolyn Dryfoos Greenspon, a psychotherapist, to replace another family member on the board, Daniel Cohen, who disclosed in January that he would not stand for re-election.

Also today, the board revealed in its statement that Scott Galloway, a one-time activist director since 2008, also would not seek re-election. The board chose to not fill his seat, so the governing body will shrink to 13 members.

Galloway joined the board after leading a dissident shareholder campaign to force changes at the company; his departure appears to be victory for Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr.

Soothing family dramas
The Ochs-Sulzberger family has controlled the Times Co. for more than 100 years. Greenspon (left) and Chairman Sulzberger are second cousins; Cohen and Sulzberger are first cousins. (See this family tree.)

Greenspon, 41, is a social worker and therapist in private practice at Comprehensive Psychiatric Associates in the Boston suburb of Wellesley. Notably, today's board statement says, she offers expertise in a speciality of current importance to her own family: She is a consultant working with "multigenerational family businesses and families who share substantial assets."

Consultants such as Greenspon are increasingly in demand at family-controlled firms, where intergenerational squabbles can spur the breakup of dynastic businesses. That was the fate of Dow Jones & Co. in 2007, when the long-time controlling Bancroft family sold the media giant and its marquee title, The Wall Street Journal, to News Corp.

Murdoch's looming threat
The Ochs-Sulzbergers have led the Times Co. since 1896, when Adolph S. Ochs bought controlling ownership for $75,000.

But in recent years, observers have questioned how long the family can maintain control amid growing competition online -- and from News Corp. Under News CEO Rupert Murdoch (left), the Journal increasingly is encroaching on The New York Times' franchise; the WSJ reportedly is about to launch a 36-person New York City Bureau, for example.

The Times Co. board elections are to be held at the annual shareholders meeting, set for April 27.

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