CHICAGO-Members of a firm’s Board of Directors must changeattitudes, according to a new research paper by FergusonPartners Ltd., based here. From a discussion with 12chairmen and lead independent directors from real estate, mortgageand related sectors, the study shows that boards need to getsmarter about their product and more accountable for risk.

For the talk about lessons learned from the financial downturn,Ferguson interviewed executives such as BRE PropertiesInc. chairman Irving Lyons III,FelCor chairman and co-founder ThomasCorcoran Jr. and Starwood Hotels chairmanBruce Duncan. The consensus from the 12, BillFerguson tells GlobeSt.com, was that board members should havehands-on industry experience, fewer numbers and an insistence onemergency planning.

“I think in retrospect we’ve found that boards such as thoseoverseeing Lehman Bros., Bear Stearns and AIG were not held asaccountable as they should have been,” says Ferguson, chairman andCEO of his self-named firm. “The CEOs of those companiesessentially bet the balance sheet, and when they lost one has toask where was the board in all this?”