News & Views on Modern Governance in the Digital Age

In this episode of The Corporate Director Podcast, Dr. John Katsos, Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics at the American University of Sharjah and Jason Miklian, Senior Researcher at the Center for Development and Environment at the University of Oslo take us inside their recent Harvard Business Review article, A New Crisis Playbook for an Uncertain World. 

 In this episode of The Corporate Director Podcast, Maura Quinn, Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Directors in Ireland (IoD), discusses the state of ESG integration in Irish boardrooms based on recent research conducted in partnership with the Diligent Institute. 

 In this episode of The Corporate Director Podcast, Sherry Williams, Chief Audit Executive, and Don Bouffard, Audit Committee Chair at Amalgamated Bank give us insight into how internal audit can serve as an important link between business operations and strategy.

In this episode of The Corporate Director Podcast, hear from Joe Hurd, former technology executive for companies like Facebook and Gannett, and experienced public company director, discuss the key similarities and differences between boards in the United States versus boards in the United Kingdom.

Larry Clinton, President of the Internet Security Alliance provides a sobering update on cyber risk and calls for a redesign of cybersecurity infrastructures.

Also, podcast co-hosts Dottie Schindlinger and Meghan Day reflect on corporate responses to racial injustice in the wake of recent events.

Officially a pandemic, the impact of coronavirus is broad reaching and disruptive. For companies, your crisis response not only impacts the bottom line, it also impacts lives. Podcast guest, Peter Deans, shares his take on how the associated risks need to be effectively managed by boards and management.

Later, Diligent Institute Lead Researcher Annie Kors offers highlights from the new report, A Few Good Women: Gender Inclusion in Public Company Board Leadership.

Change is happening at lightning speed. In fact, NACD reported that 68% of directors believe their company will not be able to extend its historical strategy over the next five years. Claudia Fan Munce, co-founder and former managing director of the IBM Venture Capital Group, shares her perspectives on innovation as a board member today.

Also in this episode, Diligent Institute Lead Researcher Annie Kors shares highlights from Beyond the Boardroom: How Corporate Directors Gain Insight.

Episode 12

In 2018, the top reason for forced CEO turnovers was misconduct. Jennifer Chatman, Professor at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkely and independent director at Simpson Manufacturing Inc., has dedicated her research to demystifying corporate culture. In this episode, she shares: (1) Ways to identify a narcissistic CEO, (2) How to unveil a toxic corporate culture, and (3) Recommendations for diverse boards of directors.

Episode 11

Episode 10

Nearly six years ago, Target experienced a major breach of its customer data. Since then, the conversations in boardrooms about cyber risk could not be more different than they used to be. In this episode, Peter Gleason, CEO of NACD (the National Association of Corporate Directors), shares his advice for how directors can stay up-to-date on trends in cyber risk—especially with so many recent cyber breaches in the news.

Episode 9

ESG: environment, social, and governance. There are no clear rules and regulations around ESG–no single definition that everyone is supposed to be following. Coca-Cola European Partners is among the organizations that are pioneering best practices in this area. General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Clare Wardle talks about the metrics-based approach that the board and management teams have used to drive success at her organization.

Episode 8

One of the main problems plaguing corporate governance is too much looking backward and not enough looking forward. Another one is quality of information. In this episode, postcast host Dottie Schindlinger, co-author of Governance in the Digital Age, interviews Susan Forrester, board chair and director of several listed companies, live in Sydney to celebrate the book. Forrester explores: “How do I make sure I’ve got the most up-to-date, real-time information…while still remembering that my job as a board member is to govern, not to run the company?”

Episode 7

Corporate boards are under pressure to become more diverse – in age, gender, skill set and more. But younger executives already have full plates, and being a corporate director is becoming an increasingly tough job – one that might seem less attractive to younger candidates than in years past. Are corporate boards heading toward a labor crisis? We sat down with Nora Denzel, a Silicon Valley tech executive who serves on the boards of AMD, Talend Software, and Ericsson, to discuss how the demands are changing in corporate boardrooms.

Episode 6

The average age of board directors around the world is 63.5 years old, and that number is climbing every year. Which begs the question: how do you digitize the modern boardroom when it appears that boards are growing older and are often hesitant to embrace technology? Why should you bother digitizing your board room at all? Recently, we visited Singapore and had a live podcast recording with Colin Low, Chairman of the Singapore Investment Development Corporation, to discuss how everything from diversity to globalization to digital transformation.

Episode 5

Communication and transparency go hand-in-hand. The company secretary plays an incredibly important role in overseeing what and how information is delivered to the board–making sure it’s not too much, not too little, but just right. We sat down with Pamela Coles, a longtime governance professional and company secretary of Rolls Royce PLC, to discuss how Rolls Royce is putting into practice some progressive ideas to drive transparency, information sharing, and a robust organizational culture.

Episode 4

Diversity is an increasingly center-stage topic, and there’s no place the effects of diversity are more far-reaching than in corporate boardrooms. On this episode, we sit down with next-gen board member Erin Lantz (TrueCar) and CGLytics’ head of research Jonathan Nelson to discuss the ripple effects associated with diversity. If research shows that diversity enhances performance, why are some boards still lagging so far behind?

Episode 3

Digital disruption has impacted nearly every industry. Retail, transportation, and even certain parts of healthcare have been upended, as market disruptors supplant long-standing companies. Research also shows that half of the S&P 500 companies will be replaced over the next 10 years. The forecast is pretty clear: Disrupt, or be disrupted. We sat down with John Hinshaw, who’s held senior positions and directorships at various companies (like Sysco, Hewlett-Packard, & Verizon Wireless), to discuss how boards today are tackling technological unrest.

Episode 2

Insights are lifeblood for directors. With the rapid pace of today’s business landscape, directors want more data and more research, and they need it faster. In this episode, Laurie Yoler, board member with Church & Dwight, Bose, Zoox, and Noon Home, explains how board members can obtain those insights–and how boards can enable their individual strengths to ask the right questions. We also hear from Annie Kors, who is the lead researcher for the Diligent Institute, a Diligent governance think tank and research arm.

Episode 1

We’re excited to kick off our first episode of The Corporate Director Podcast. We’ve launched this podcast by interviewing two exceptional guests: Brian Stafford, president and CEO of Diligent, and Betsy Atkins, serial entrepreneur, three-time CEO, and corporate governance & growth expert.

In this episode, we cover how the role of boards has changed over the past decade—and what changes we can expect to see in the future. We know you’re going to love it.

In this episode of The Corporate Director Podcast, hear from Joe Hurd, former technology executive for companies like Facebook and Gannett, and experienced public company director, discuss the key similarities and differences between boards in the United States versus boards in the United Kingdom.