Constance Horner, once an assistant to former President George Bush (that’s the older one, folks) and a Pfizer board member since 1993, is now the drugmaker’s lead director. She succeeds Stan Ikenberry, who plans to leave the board on March 22, because he’s reached retirement age (last year’s proxy listed him as 71 years old as of April).

Horner, whose age wasn’t listed in today’s press release but was 64 last April, also chairs the board’s governance committee. She’s expected to serve a multi-year term, and work on such things as information flow between directors.

Should shareholders welcome this promotion? Whether or not Horner was a Hank McKinnell fan, she’s been on the Pfizer board for 13 years, which means she was around when McKinnell was named ceo and - drum roll, please - given all that money. And she was on the corporate governance and executive committees.

The board can obviously do what it wants, but this was a chance to look beyond the same four walls for some new leadership, not institutionalize the same tired thinking that undermined investor confidence. File this under missed opportunity.

[tags]Constance Horner, Pfizer[/tags]