Covisint LLC has appointed the first 12 of its 17 directors, but there's still no CEO in sight for the E-commerce exchange founded by DaimlerChrysler, Ford, and General Motors. Having a board lets Covisint get down to business as an independent company, setting policy and working toward solvency.

Covisint execs won't estimate how much longer their CEO search will continue. "This is going to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest E-business entity in the world, and we don't want to settle for an 8," says Dan Jankowski, a Covisint planning team member. "On a scale of 1 to 10, we don't even want to settle for a 10. We want a solid 12." The Covisint CEO will need a good grasp of E-commerce and the kind of collaborative manufacturing business done by the automakers and their suppliers, as well as the ability to plan for a highly E-business-oriented future, Covisint execs and others have said.

Seven of the appointees come from the auto companies that form the nucleus of the exchange. Five other seats were filled by executives of suppliers Magna International, Delphi Automotive Systems, Johnson Controls, Lear, and Siemens. GM group VP and CIO Ralph Szygenda, who will fill one of the automakers' seats on the board, says another of the 17 spots will go to the CEO.

Szygenda says the four remaining seats may be filled by experts in business, banking and finance, and information technology, and a seat may even go to an academic. "We're looking for a diverse board," he says. "We will be one of the largest high-tech companies in the world, and we need a lot of experience from many areas of business and technology." Szygenda says diversity on the board will ensure that Covisint is independent, not controlled by the automakers.