Margaret Whitman, president and chief executive of eBay, the online auction site, has resigned from the board of directors at Goldman Sachs, ahead of the implementation of new rules requiring director independence.

In August this year, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) proposed that all NYSE-listed companies would have to appoint a majority of independent directors to their boards to offer a best-checking mechanism on omnipotent chief executives. The changes were prompted by corporate scandals such as Enron and WorldCom, and will come into effect at the end of next year.