The present paper has outlined two contrasting approaches to the structure of corporate boards: agency theory and stewardship theory. The former emphasises control of managerial “opportunism” by having a board chair independent of the CEO and using incentives to bind CEO interests to those of shareholders. Stewardship theory stresses the beneficial consequences on shareholder returns of facilitative authority structures which unify command by having roˆles of CEO and chair held by the same person. The empirical evidence is that the ROE returns to shareholders are improved by combining, rather than by separating, the roˆle-holders of the chair and CEO positions. Thus, the results fail to support agency theory and lend some support to stewardship theory. The safeguarding of returns to shareholders may be along the track, not of placing management under greater control by owners, but of empowering managers to take autonomous executive action.