A nationally recognized independent manager (IM) is an individual that sits on a company’s board but has no other relationship or function with the company. Typically, they are appointed at the request of a third party (most often a lender) to ensure that the other managers are not operating in a way that might undermine the debt, or the lender’s rights.

An Independent Manager is an ad hoc member of an LLC’s board of managers that has no equity relationship with the entity and thus is considered independent of the LLC’s ownership.