Hayes said this is not necessarily a sign of impropriety on Winokur’s part.

“The most we can say is he and other members of Enron’s board essentially failed in their duty of oversight. That is obviously an embarrassment, but it doesn’t suggest any activity that is shady,” Hayes said.

Additionally, the connections of Enron board members with outside companies have drawn widespread scrutiny in recent weeks.

Karam noted Winokur’s status as the former chair of the board of directors and a current board member of DynCorp—a subcontractor for the federal government with ties to the SEC.

“DynCorp interestingly runs the information systems for the Department of Justice and the SEC, the very people Enron is under investigation by,” Karam said.

Karam said DynCorp could access e-mails, digital communications and other sensitive information about the ongoing investigation.

“Not to say [Winokur’s] doing anything, but his people could easily get him access,” Karam continued.

However, the Business School professor said that such a connection could be trivial.

“It would depend on how important that client [the SEC] was,” Hayes said. “If it’s 1 percent of [DynCorp’s] business it probably isn’t, but if it’s 10 or 15 percent that could be more of a problem.”

Beyond Winokur’s involvement with DynCorp, the New York Times uncovered proxy statements filed by Enron with the SEC that fail to list Winokur as a board member of the NATCO Group, a producer of gas and oil equipment that did $1.5 million in business with Enron.

Under federal law, Winokur is obligated to disclose his relationship to NATCO since it is a publicly traded company.

While connections like these are relatively common, they are drawing special attention in the Enron case.

According to Hayes, the sheer size of Enron, the billions of dollars investors lost and the potentially fraudulent financial and accounting practices of the company may make this case different and tarnish the reputations of board members.

“I think it’s going to be a real problem for directors,” Hayes said. “They are likely to be sued by any number of parties with grievances, and the other thing that is troublesome is the reputational cost of this debacle, because the board’s role is to provide comprehensive oversight of [Enron’s] operations.”

Winokur could not be reached for comment for this story. University spokesperson Joe Wrinn also declined to comment for this story.

—Staff writer Joseph P. Flood can be reached at flood@fas.harvard.edu