Visa Assembles a Top-notch Board

On its first day of trading, Visa Inc. overcame market jitters and sold 406 million shares at $44 apiece late yesterday to raise nearly $18 billion and complete the most lucrative initial public offering in U.S. history, reports the Associated Press. 

The price topped the range of $37 to $42 per share that Visa set three weeks ago, reflecting high demand to own a piece of a company that's promising earnings growth of 20 percent despite a credit crunch that's strangling the U.S. economy.

The most successful IPO in U.S. history was led by a board assembled last summer as the credit card company restructured to take itself public.

The board, a veritable treasure trove of former vice chairs, CEOs and presidents is led by Visa chairman and CEO Joseph Saunders, and is comprised of 10 independent directors:

• Business professor Thomas Campbell of the Haas School of Business, University of California, and head of the governance committee
• Former Abbott Labs CFO Gary Coughlan
• Mary B. Cranston, senior partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
• Francisco Javier Fernandez-Carbajal, former CEO, corporate development division, Grupo Financiero BBVA Bancomer
• Former Goldman Sachs Vice Chairman Suzanne Nora Johnson
• Seagram’s former vice chair and CFO, Robert W. Matschullat, chairs the audit and risk committee
• Cathy Elizabeth Minehan, former president and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
• David J. Pang, former CEO, Airport Authority of Hong Kong and a former corporate vice president at E.I. DuPont and former chairman, DuPont Greater China
• William Shanahan, former president, Colgate-Palmolive Company, appointed to chair the compensation committee
• John Swainson, president, CEO and director of CA, Inc.