You might call Stanley Foster Reed something of a niche forefather to Corporate Leader and brother mags Trader Monthly and Dealmaker.

A self-taught engineer and naval architect who started off in defense contracting in the 1940's, Reed weathered a couple of misfires before getting it right.

First, there was his replacement for paper money--durable, washable and counterfeit-proof graham cracker-shaped plastic currency. Then, there was the misbegotten sale of his first business--which led him to found Mergers & Acquisitions magazine in 1965. His purpose? To teach others how to become better judges of "men, prospects and management."

Thereafter a mergers expert, Reed's follow-on publications would include Directors & Boards (covering shareholder activism and corporate governance), Campaigns & Elections, Export Today and his best-selling book, The Art of M&A.

Also from Reed: "The Toxic Executive" (not to be confused with Jean Lipman-Blumen's "The Allure of Toxic Leaders"), on managing difficult bosses. Not one of his best works, confides an aide de pen, but useful in at least identifying the Top 10 Behaviors of Toxic Executives.

Which brings me, in my own eccentric way, to the board ouster of Wachovia CEO G. Kennedy Thompson. Customers loved the nation's fourth-largest bank--for the last seven years straight, Wachovia ruled the American Customer Satisfaction Index--but it seems there was rot aplenty behind the scenes.

Mr. Thompson came in a mergers expert but left an acquisitions goat, behind bad buys such as mortgage lender Golden West Financial.

What else was amiss? Try money laundering, telemarketing fraud upon the elderly, delinquent auto loans, false promises about dividend cuts and unfair bidding in municipal derivatives.

The late Mr. Reed's verdict? Toxic.

Jeff Heilman

6/3/08