Trustee Obligations
Re your September story “Los Angeles Turnaround,” by Claire Hoffman: Congratulations to Eli Broad, a great American art collector, museum trustee, and philanthropist, for his leadership at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We hope the addition of celebrities like Barbra Streisand to the board of trustees means that these prominent citizens accept the duties of a trustee by attending board meetings, being familiar with the financial reports of the museum, and overseeing the director. Being a good trustee these days means more than writing a large check to the museum and being a trustee in name only.
—James L. McCreight, chairman, Museum Trustee Association, Tucson, Arizona

The Swartz Enigma
I read the September issue from cover to cover, and it’s quite good. One quibble: In Katrina Brooker’s “Murderers and Rapists and Tyco’s Mark Swartz,” we want to like this guy. But Swartz says he got $50 million in bonuses, with no records. Do you mean for us to believe him? Or is he afraid of what his boss might do to him if he tells the truth? The writer should point the reader in the right direction.
—Bruce Deitrick Price, Norfolk, Virginia

Congratulations on the launch of Condé Nast Portfolio. It’s my favorite new magazine of the decade. You manage to pack quite a bit of interesting information into one publication. I like the mix of briefs and long-form articles. In issue No. 2, I found the articles on crime [“Murderers and Rapists and Tyco’s Mark Swartz”] and George Steinbrenner [“Baseball After the Boss,” by Franz Lidz] particularly interesting. I look forward to future issues.
—Rick Smilow, Westport, Connecticut

The Human Connection
In your September Editor’s Letter, you argue that this decade will be defined by its lack of transparency. I couldn’t agree more. Another theme that I believe will be relevant to business and society in the coming decades is human connection. As a consultant to businesses, I’ve never seen so many people express a longing for something more in life than a seemingly endless ride on the hedonic treadmill. Depression and boredom have risen, and the measures of subjective well-being have hardly budged, even though economic prosperity has soared. Organizations will be confronting the lack of connection in the workplace and what they can do to ameliorate it.

As an “achievaholic,” this is something I struggle with. So much of my life is consumed with working that I have far too often crowded out time for meaningful relationships beyond those with my family and close circle of friends.

To my surprise, my company’s clients on Wall Street, including leaders in the hedge fund and private equity fields, feel this the most, yet they are often unaware of the source of their anxiety. Sadly, as a means of self-medication, they engage in risky behavior that can destroy their lives as well as the lives of their families and employees.
—Michael L. Stallard, Greenwich, Connecticut

A Nice Start
I am not prone to placing election signs in my yard or writing to my hometown newspaper, much less writing to the editor in chief of a business magazine, but in your case, I am making an exception.

I have just read the second issue of Condé Nast Portfolio, and I want you to know how much I enjoyed it. The articles are more like one-hour in-depth reports than five-minute news updates. I find the stories to be of great interest, and I take several days to read the whole publication, unlike other business magazines to which I subscribe. Keep up the great work.
—Lee Roy Hutchins, Long Beach, Mississippi

What an excellent magazine. It’s all you need to be captivated for the duration of a short-haul flight.
—Richard Sunderland, London, England

I was pleasantly surprised to receive the September issue of Condé Nast Portfolio. My first response on seeing it in my mailbox was “Well, I finally received something that wasn’t from Oprah or Martha Stewart—or Sears!” It’s a great publication. You certainly achieved your goal of publishing deeply reported stories.
—Fred Renfrow, Greenville, South Carolina

I just read the second issue of your magazine and am amazed that I could find another business magazine intriguing. Well done.
—Alex Ashong, Washington, D.C.
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