Old soldiers - or U.S. Admirals - don't die or fade away, they just join corporate boards. Fresh off his "retirement" from Nortel, Bill Owens has become a director with Polycom Inc., the "world's leading provider of unified collaborative communications solutions" - whatever that means. You may recall that Owens was given millions of dollars by Nortel in "compensation" for resigning from several boards following his appointment as CEO in April 2004. As we now know, Owens was handsomely rewarded for his 18 months as Nortel's CEO with a super-sweet severance and retirement package. Mind you, Owens' package could pale in comparison to what Nortel could pay Mike Zafirovski, whose package includes a life-long $500,000 a year retirement deal - without getting into options, bonuses and the $11.5-million Nortel had to give Motorola set Mike Z. free.