Enter the Boardroom

Malcolm John is Founder and CEO of Action for Trustee Racial Diversity, a trustee at the Association of Chairs, and former Vice-Chair of Anti-Slavery International. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What was your journey to the boardroom? (2:23) How do you add value to boards? (7:00) How do you gain confidence in the boardroom? (9:53) How do you make someone feel welcome on a board? (15:21) What ar...

Christian Unger is Partner at Partners Group. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What is the Partners Group approach to boards? (1:49) How do you attract CEOs to board roles? (5.23) What is the perfect board size? (10.18) How much ownership do individual NEDs have over specific strategies? (17:56) Where have you seen NEDs add the most value? (26:28) How do you stop disagreement for disagreement’s sa...

Dorothy Burwell is a Partner at FGS Global, NED at Post Holdings, and Pennon plc. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What key lessons as a comms exec have shaped the way you act as a board member? (2:13) How did you navigate merging four founder-led businesses together at FGS? (4:21) How quickly should changes occur post-merger? (11:17) What advice do you give to an executive team going through a me...

Lisa Gordon is Chair of Cavendish and a  NED at 3i Infrastructure PLC, JP Morgan MidCap Investment Trust PLC and Magic Light Pictures Ltd. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What sort of a NED are you? (2:10) How do you gain confidence in the boardroom? (7:37) How reliant are you on outside support to maintain your courage? (11:59) How challenging are capital markets? (15:57)  How can board members...

Tim Jackson is the founder of QXL and a General Partner at Walking Ventures. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What is your founder and CEO journey? (2:03) Where did the board add most value? (7:23) What do you wish your board had done for you knowing what you know now? (10:50) What are the most common reasons for a CEO to lose control of a company? (12:42) How can CEO’s better prepare for breaking...

Jurga Zilinskiene is founder of Guildhawk, Evernoon, Today Translations and Today Academy. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: How does the board at Guildhawk add value? (1:49) What roles did friends and advisors play early on in your business journey? (6:03) How did you transition from receiving informal advice to establishing a formal board? (10:32) How did your board advance your strategy? (15:37)...

Gerry Murphy is Chair of Tesco and Burberry, Trustee at The Burberry Foundation and Senior Advisor at Perella Weinberg. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What were the three most consequential boardroom moments for you as a CEO? (1:42) How can boards assess how much control they have over external factors? (6:26) What frameworks do you use to assess risk? (9:33) What megatrends should be shaping st...

Cindy Rampersaud is NED at Sage Homes and formerly SID at Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: How have you decided which pro bono roles to take on? (1.47) What have you gained from pro bono opportunities? (3.36) How do you build relationships on boards? (5.19)   How does a board recruit the right CEO? (10.42) What role should the board play in shaping digital strategy? (13.1...

Kate Swann is Chair of Moonpig, Beijer Ref, Parques Reunidos, and IVC Evidensia and former CEO of WH Smith. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: As a CEO, where have seen boards add most value? (1:56) Are board members more valuable as individuals, or as a collective? (7:35) What boardroom archetypes are  most useful to a CEO? (8:54) What have you learnt from being a NED that would have made you a bet...

Annemarie Durbin is Chair at YBS. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: How did you become comfortable as Chair of the Yorkshire Building Society (YBS)? (1:50) How much time did you commit, as a new chair, to YBS? (4:45) What lessons have you learnt from previous chair transitions? (7:48) How valuable was having a mentor during your chairship? (9:30) Who are some examples of good chairs you have served...

Richard Meddings is Chair of NHS England. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What is the governance landscape of the NHS? (3:48) Which parts of the system are most interesting to get involved with as a NED? (6:17) What are the typical challenges NHS Trust board members face? (11:40) Do NHS and commercial organisations approach strategy differently? (16:01) Where have you seen NHS board members add m...

 Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is the Chief Innovation Officer at ManpowerGroup and a Professor of Business Psychology. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: How can board members add value during a CEO recruitment process? (2:05) Why do boards still hire incompetent leaders even when they know what traits and behaviours to look out for? (5:51) How should board members assess CEO’s? (13:06) Are psychomet...

Rain Newton-Smith is CBI CEO and NED at F&C Investment Trust. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What advice would you give to CEOs preparing for a new position? (1:45) How have you built a relationship with your Chair? (8:47) How do you ensure a distinction between the roles of CEO and Chair? (13:36) How do you decide whether to share something with your Chair? (17:17) Can you offer some exampl...

John Allan, CBE, is Co-Founder of J&A Mentoring Partners. He was Chair of Tesco PLC and also served as President of the CBI. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: Why did you feel like you had to step down from your roles at Tesco and the CBI? (1:54) How should boards handle personal reputational risk? (5:15) Would you handle the situation differently now?  (7:07) When should chairs step down in a...

Pamela Dow chaired the government's Inclusion at Work Panel. She is the COO at Civic Future and former exec director at the Cabinet Office. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What were your key takeaways from the government's D&I review? (1:57) Common mistakes organisations make with DEI? (7:50) What data should inform boards decisions on DEI? (10:02) Which organisations are getting DE...

Stanislav Shekshnia is a professor at INSEAD, where he directs board development programs. He is Chair of TechnoEnergy AG and has held numerous chair and director positions across the EU and US. Tune in to hear his thoughts on:  How should Chairs prepare for new roles? (1:42) What can Chairs do to build a sense of team on their boards? (5:42) What are the most effective means boards can use to ass...

Angela Seymour-Jackson is Chair of Page Group, Deputy Chair of Pikl, SID at TrustPilot Group, and NED at Future and Janus Henderson Group. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: Can you describe your journey into the boardroom? (1:47) As Chair, what archetypes do you want around the board table? (6:25) What frameworks do you use to understand the range of organisations across your portfolio? (12:32) How...

Nadhim Zahawi is a former cabinet minister and Conservative Party chair. Before his parliamentary career, he founded YouGov, where he was CEO for a decade. Tune in to hear Nadhim’s thoughts on: What have been your sliding doors moments in your journey into the boardroom? (1:58) How did you cut through bureaucracy with the Vaccine Task Force? (10:59) How do you deal with the court of public opinion...

Tamara Box is a partner at Reed Smith LLP, Chair at Interpath Advisory & The Eve Appeal, NED at Hanover Capital, and Trustee at the Chartered Management Institute. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: Why and how did you put in place an advisory board at Reed Smith? (2:10) Given the talent around the table, why are so many boards dysfunctional? (6:21) How did your advisory board add value to you,...

Eamon Devlin is adjunct professor and associate fellow at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, founder of Minute9, an elite sports consultancy, and co-founder of MJ Hudson, a private equity law firm. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: To what extent do board meetings resemble half-time team talks for the executive? (1:53) How do you decide who should be present at half-time, and can board...

Nuala Walsh is NED at British & Irish Lions and Basketball Ireland, Chair of Innocence Project London, Founding Director of the Global Association of Behavioural Scientists and author of Tune in . Listen to hear her thoughts on: Can you bring to life, blind, dead and dumb spots - the trilogy of errors that lead to bad decisions? ( 2:00 ) If these errors are often unconscious, how can board mem...

Gerry Brown is Chair of Novaquest Capital Management and G Brown Associates. A plural Chair and NED across private equity, family and listed businesses, Gerry is co-author of three books about boards, including Disaster in the Boardroom . Tune in to hear his thoughts on: Is there such a thing as a comprehensive risk checklist applicable to all boards? ( 2:07 ) How do you apply your framework of th...

When have boards added most value to you as an exec? ( 2:48 ) When was the last time your board challenged you as CEO? ( 5:38 ) How can non-execs challenge execs, without compromising trust? ( 7:05 ) How have you and the board of the Natural History Museum got comfortable that your 550m transformation project won’t overrun? ( 8:52 ) Could you distill Amazon’s ways of working and how they might app...

Ali Parsa founded Babylon Health, which he grew to a $4.1bn equity valuation in 2021 before it entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in 2023. Tune in to hear this amazing story, including Ali’s thoughts on: How has your backstory, escaping Iran in the 80s, informed your approach to entrepreneurship? ( 2:20 ) How have you managed to fundraise so successfully? ( 3:21 ) What advice do you have for...

Amy C. Edmondson is a Professor of Leadership & Management at Harvard Business School. Ranked #1 management thinker in the world by Thinkers50, Amy has written seven books, including Right Kind of Wrong and the fearless organization. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What is psychological safety and why does it matter for board members? ( 1:44 ) Can we overcome our fear of what others think of...