Read the article. He’s doing writing, interviewing and publishing for Medium in addition to his board seat. His board seat will allow him to make sure his publishing partnership isn’t compromised by strategic changes at the executive level.
Also, where does it say anything about protecting his publishing partnership from executive changes?
A board member normally has influence over the direction of the company. They did not need to spell it out.
Also, one board seat out of five doesn’t enable him to protect the partnership. Log-roll, maybe, but again this is drawing some pretty conclusions IMO.
As for the rest, it might help you to think of a board relationship as providing several benefits to both the board member and the company. We’ve only discussed one. In addition to his partnership work, he’ll conduct normal board member duties.
Not sure why you keep digging in on this position. You strongly implied that the article said something that it absolutely did not. Good day!