Bunhill: Board size

LARGE boards are cumbersome, unwieldy and turn board meetings into rubber-stamping occasions. Such is conventional wisdom. But Conrad Black, the Napoleon-loving proprietor of The Telegraph Group, has never been one to follow fashion. In December, he wrote a passionate defence of the short skirt for the Daily Telegraph just as hemlines were plunging.

Now he seems to be ploughing a lone furrow on boardroom size. While most public companies are cutting down on directors, Mr Black last week added another two to his enormous troupe, which already includes luminaries such as Lords Carrington and King and a trio of knights - Frank Rogers, Martin Jacomb and Evelyn de Rothschild.

The new recruits, Len Sanderson and Stephen Jarislowsky, bring the total to 23. It would have been 24, but Sir Jimmy Goldsmith resigned last year in case his attendance compromised his tax exile status.

Mr Jarislowsky may prove a particularly useful ally for Mr Black. He is chairman and chief executive of Jarislowsky, Fraser & Co, Canada's biggest pension fund manager. Among its investments is an 8 per cent stake in Southam, the media group in which The Telegraph recently bought a holding.

Joe Cooke, The Telegraph's managing director, says the company benefits from the directors' broad expertise. 'Most of the decisions are taken at the appropriate managerial level.'

The board is now even bigger than NatWest's, which in 1989 had somehow ballooned to 31 directors, but has since been whittled down to a slimmish 20.