Future Directors Podcast

Quick reminder that this is Part 2 of Charlotte's episode. If you've not already listened to Part 1, we suggest checking it out first , then coming back to enjoy the second half. In Part 2, Charlotte and Paul question why board governance just doesn't seem exciting to many people – and we think they've found the answer. Listen to the episode to find out. You'll also hear about: The benefits of rev...

Charlotte Valeur is an experienced non-executive director and listed company Chair, with over 35 years of executive and governance experience. She is a former Chair of the Institute of Directors (UK) and now heads up the Global Governance Group. Her board resume is highly impressive.  Charlotte is also neurodiverse. She first spoke publicly about her autism diagnosis last year (2020) and now works...

This episode features Scott Baldwin, certified board director, governance advisor and co-founder of DirectorPrep.com and The Savvy Director blog.  Scott is well-known as a board director who asks really good questions, so it was exciting getting him on the show and asking him some (hopefully) really good questions. As it turns out he turned the tables on Paul and started asking him great questions...

We've been on a short hiatus while lining up a number of awesome Australian and international guests. But, we're kicking back into gear with our latest guest Maali Khader, CEO of the Middle East Institute of Directors. Maali is driving change within the corporate culture of the Middle East. She focuses on building awareness, education and behavioural change across governance, diversity and corpora...

We're back with Part 2 of our latest episode with Erin Essenmacher, the award-winning documentary film writer, director, producer, and former president and chief strategy officer of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).  (Haven't listened to Part 1 yet? We suggest you do that first . Context!) In Part 2, Erin and Paul focus on the big question: should there be agreed standards or...

This episode features Erin Essenmacher, who has a long list of achievements we can mention after her name; she's an award-winning documentary film writer, director, producer, and former president and chief strategy officer of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).  Oh, and she's also a cancer survivor. As we're sure you can already guess, Erin's story is amazing. In Part 1 of this...

Welcome to the second part of our 'Youth in the Boardroom' panel, with governance specialists Nurain Janah, Hannah Stenning and Matt Fullbrook.  Part 2 is just as awesome as Part 1 , and a must-listen for any young person considering a role as a director – or perhaps more importantly, for any young person who has NEVER considered a role as a board director.  We think it's also important for any bo...

We have an amazing episode of the podcast for you this week, part 1 of a double episode. Paul has invited three of his governance friends to join him in a discussion about one of our favourite topics: intergenerational diversity , or more accurately the role of younger people in the boardroom. Paul is joined by previous podcast guests, Nurain Janah ( Episode 48 – How to influence in the boardroom...

My first podcast guest for 2021 is Shannon Sedgwick; cyber security and tech expert, board director, consultant, and keynote speaker. We cover a lot of ground but make sure you stick around to the end for some very practical boardroom tips on cyber risk. Shannon is renowned in both corporate and government circles through his ability to provide future-focused leadership to executives and boards in...

This episode of the podcast features Craig Dunn, a highly regarded business leader with over 20 years of both senior executive and non-executive experience. He is on the boards of two of Australia's largest listed companies, telecommunications giant Telstra and the Westpac Banking Group. Craig is also chair of the Australian Ballet.  Paul and Craig get into the following: What was Craig's route to...

After the latest episode with impact specialist Rosemary Addis, she and Paul sat down in the green room to keep the conversation going... (We recommend checking out that episode first ). They continue to ask essential questions like: What steps can directors take to introduce the impact investment conversation into their boardroom? How can this approach act as a revenue generator? The Holy Grail o...

This week on the podcast we have Rosemary Addis AM, a globally recognised social innovation and impact investment specialist.  With an international portfolio of both advisory and board roles, Rosemary encourages big conversations to be had where big decisions are being made – the boardroom. Rosemary delivers an unparalleled depth and breadth of practical knowledge on all things impact and innovat...

Welcome back to the second part of Beverly Cole's podcast. We think it was well-worth the wait, with Beverly and Paul continuing to discuss big questions like: What kind of director is the best for recruiting? Who should take responsibility for properly on-boarding new directors? Are boards just not looking hard enough for the right people? Or are there too few 'right people'? Getting into the boa...

Every now and then, someone comes along whom we could listen to for hours. Our latest guest, Beverly Cole, has rich lived experiences, a relaxed wisdom, and a softly spoken influence about her. With so much to talk about we couldn't stop, we split her conversation with Paul into two feature episodes.  This week is Part 1, and Beverly and Paul discuss: The ONE THING Beverly has learned through her...

Our guest this week is Sara Faivre, a board director, business owner and coach who mentors executives and entrepreneurs in developing critical business and personal skills to create sustainable businesses.  Coming from a biotech background with a love of agriculture and life-science, Sara believes one of the key aspects to finding long-term success in business, and on boards, is by placing importa...

In a follow up to Episode 48 , Paul continues his conversation with Nurain Janah.  Also known as 'the podcast after the podcast; the Green Room is the chance for guests to debrief. We find out if there's anything they wished they'd said, and anything they wish they hadn't . In this episode, Nurain and Paul discuss: The ability to voice thoughts as lived experience, rather than opinion Why Nurain f...

This week's dose of audio inspiration comes from our latest guest, Nurain Janah.  Nurain is an amazing young person with a dedicated passion for change. She has already achieved so much in a short period of time – with no signs of slowing down. Nurain combines a day-job as a senior consultancy with Ernst & Young NZ with her superpowers of social entrepreneurship, multiple board governance and advi...

This episode of the Future Directors podcast is fascinating. Voyt Krzychylkiewicz comes on to share his seemingly endless insights on a number of governance topics. Voyt is an investment executive, governance expert, founder and diversity advocate. Born in Poland, raised in South Africa and currently living in Canada, Voyt has a lot of cross-cultural experience, inside and outside the boardroom. H...

This week's episode of the Future Directors podcast features professional non-executive director and chair, Yasmin Allen.  With an extensive international career, Yasmin has a wealth of experience across a wide range of industries and now holds multiple board roles across ASX100 corporates and influential organisations. It was fascinating to hear her perspectives on a wide range of topics. Paul an...

Recently we've been ruminating on the topic of board appointments – namely, Bridget Louden's appointment to the Telstra board at the age of 32. Given that the average age of board directors around the world – especially corporate boards – is early sixties, this appointment is encouragingly ground-breaking.  It made us reflect on age in the boardroom, and with that we were prompted to remember the...

This week on the Future Directors podcast, Paul interviews Matt Boyd, co-founder and CEO of the fast-growing remote volunteering platform, Vollie. Since its creation just a few years ago, Vollie has helped connect over 2,000 skilled volunteers to cause-related projects within the NFP and social enterprise sectors. Over 90,000 hours of volunteering which have created $2 million in savings. Vollie i...

This episode is a Green Room follow up to Episode 42 with Anoushka Gungadin.  Anoushka and Paul had such a rich conversation about Cultural Intelligence (CQ), afterwards they headed into the Green Room to debrief on their episode, or as Anoushka so aptly puts it, bring it all together. They discuss: What surprised Anoushka about some of her responses in the interview? Was there anything they misse...

This episode of the Future Directors podcast features guest Anoushka Gungadin. We've been wanting to get Anoushka on the show for a while now because we knew it'd be an amazing discussion, and Anoushka certainly delivered on that! Anoushka is an experienced leader and non-executive director, international speaker and best-selling author on Amazon. She's the CEO of Australian India Chamber and the...

This week we've taken a bit of a breather. No guest. Just for this week. However, we do have a quick announcement instead. Simply, we are changing the name of the podcast. It's not that exciting, but we wanted to tell you why. We've decided to stop hustling the boardroom, and move into alignment with the brand behind the podcast, Future Directors.  So, it's now simply called the Future Directors P...

Welcome to episode 40 of the podcast! As promised last week, this episode is focused on the second roundtable discussion from our Decision84 virtual summit held in June 2020. The discussion centres around one of the strong themes of the conference; the need for global systemic change. The lineup of guest speakers is just as impressive as Roundtable #1 , and features: Beverly Cole Cassandra Kelly J...