The Corporate Director Podcast

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. Back then, people were saying, “Why should boards spend time talking about cyber risk?” Nobody says that now. Instead, the conversation is around, “How much time should the board spend talking about cyber risk?” In this episode, we asked Peter Gleason, CEO of NACD (the National Association of Corporate Directors), to share advice for how directors can stay up-to-date on trends in cyber risk—especially with so many body blows to security constantly coming up in the news.

ESG. Environment, social or sustainability, and governance. There are no clear rules and regulations about ESG--no single definition that everyone is supposed to be following. Not only thinking about ESG but also adopting principles that drive ESG in all aspects of business is especially timely and topical right now. We got to interview Clare Wardle, General Counsel and Company Secretary for Coca-Cola European Partners, about her global take on ESG. “Every one of our environmental targets, we're seeing that that's going to make us a better, more sustainable business,” Wardle said.

One of the main problems plaguing modern governance is too much looking backward and not enough looking forward. Another one is quality of information. If boards have to make decisions based on data, it stands to reason that they should get the most accurate and relevant information possible. That’s what Dottie Schindlinger, co-author of Governance in the Digital Age, got to discuss with Susan Forrester, the chair and director of several listed companies, live in Sydney to celebrate the book.

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? Why is the director role becoming so challenging (and maybe even unappealing)? We recently sat down with Nora Denzel, a Silicon Valley tech executive who serves on the boards of AMD, Talend Software, and Ericsson, about how things are changing in corporate boardrooms and where we’re heading. “The amount of time that I spend now in public board work, it's probably double what I spent 10 years ago,” Nora said. The game is changing, and directors are challenged to keep up - board composition and performance have reached the tipping point.

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 getting older and 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 taping of an episode of The Corporate Director Podcast with Colin Low, Chairman of the Singapore Investment Development Corporation.

Communication and transparency go hand-in-hand. Some organizations are known for making all of their communications public all the time. Others have reinvented themselves so often, you hardly know which version you’re dealing with. When it comes to internal communication, clarity and transparency are key. We recently sat down with Pamela Coles, a longtime governance professional and currently company secretary of Rolls Royce PLC, to discuss how Rolls Royce is putting into practice some great ideas to drive transparency, information sharing, and a robust organizational culture.

Diversity is an increasingly center-stage topic, in legislation, pop culture, and nearly every work environment. And there’s no place the effects of diversity are more far-reaching than in corporate board rooms. On this episode, we sit down with Erin Lantz and Jonathan Nelson to discuss the facts on board diversity. Truly, there’s no one with more relevant perspectives to discuss these issues than these two guests: Erin Lantz is corporate director of TrueCar, and VP and GM of Mortgages for Zillow Group, and has an MBA from Harvard. She’s also part of what we call next-gen board directors (board members under 50). Jonathan pulls his governance expertise from his 10+ years in governance research for a variety of firms. Currently, he is Head of Research at CGLytics, a corporate governance data and analytics platform that covers over 120K people across 5,000 companies.

Digital disruption has impacted nearly every industry. Retail, transportation, and even certain parts of healthcare have been upended, as upstarts have supplanted long-standing companies. Research shows that half of the S&P 500 companies will be replaced over the next 10 years. What does that mean? There’s no escaping digital disruption. The forecast is pretty clear: Disrupt, or be disrupted. We sat down with John Hinshaw, who’s held senior positions and directorships at to discuss how boards today are tackling technological unrest. John’s combined experience as a technology executive and as a director gives him a unique insight.various companies (like Sysco, Hewlett-Packard, & Verizon Wireless)

Insights are lifeblood for directors. With today’s increasing flow of rapid data and information, directors want more data and more research, and they need it faster. This week we show board members how to obtain those insights, which research to follow, and how to enable your board to leverage their individual strengths to ask the right questions. This episode is hosted by Dottie Schindlinger and Meghan Day, with special guests Laurie Yoler and Annie Kors. Laurie Yoler is on the boards of Church & Dwight, Bose, Zoox, and Noon Home. She is also a founding member of the board of directors for Tesla. Annie Kors is the lead researcher for the Diligent Institute, the governance think tank and research arm for Diligent Corporation.

We are so excited to share with you our very first episode of The Corporate Director Podcast. We kicked off this podcast by interviewing two exceptional guests: Brian Stafford, President and CEO of Diligent Corporation and Betsy Atkins, serial entrepreneur, three-time CEO, and corporate governance & growth expert. This episode is all about modern governance. We’re covering 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.