Major investors are demanding a younger presence in the boardroom
for the digital skill sets and perspective they can bring to
emerging areas of board oversight, including e-commerce, digital
marketing and cybersecurity. To help equip these younger, often
first-time directors to be effective in the boardroom, Spencer
Stuart, Nasdaq, and Boardroom Resources jointly launched
Next Gen Board Leaders (NGBL), an initiative
designed to foster a community of current and aspiring directors to
spark discussion around the challenges, opportunities, and
contributions of a younger generation in today’s boardrooms.
Bridging a Gap Between Strategy and
Composition
Today’s companies are tasked with new risks and new
opportunities—from protecting sensitive customer data to building
omnichannel marketing experiences. Next Gen Board Leaders aims to
promote the natural diversification of skill sets that occurs when
boards are regularly revisiting strategy and composition
alignment.
“Institutional investors have been vocal about board
composition,” said Julie Daum, leader of Spencer
Stuart’s North American Board Practice. “They simply want to know
that boards have the right skill sets to guide and oversee today’s
companies in their three-, five- and ten-year plan for value
creation. Age diversity becomes an inevitable factor, as this
younger generation of directors possesses extensive expertise on
many of these fast-evolving strategic and governance issues.”
At the core of the Next Gen Board Leaders community is the
Advisory Council, a group of ten public company directors (all in
their 30s and 40s) representing diversity of industry, geography,
race, and gender. The advisory council will convene for the first
time this month in a “mini-summit” at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New
York City, where the group will candidly swap experiences and
discuss governance issues through a generational lens.
Next Gen Board Leaders Advisory Council:
- Caroline Tsay, Director with Morningstar & Rosetta Stone
(Advisory Council Chair)
- Dr. Anastassia Lauterbach, Director with Dun &
Bradstreet
- Bruce Bohuny, Director with Lakeland Bancorp
- Christa Quarles, Director with Kimberly-Clark
- David Bozeman, Director with Weyerhaeuser
- Jennifer Dulski, Director with TEGNA
- Michael Steib, Director with Ally Financial
- Priya Cherian Huskins, Director with Realty Income
Corporation
- Sonya Medina Williams, Director with Papa John’s
- Susan Chapman-Hughes, Director with Potbelly Corp.
Mini-summit discussions will be leveraged to create ongoing
thought-leadership content, which will be collaboratively published
to the Next Gen Board Leaders website throughout the year
(www.NextGenBoardLeaders.com).
“I would like to see the group provide thought leadership on
issues that boards do not necessarily dig into deep enough today,”
said Caroline Tsay, 35-year-old board member for
Rosetta Stone and Morningstar (also chair of the Advisory Council).
“These issues may include changing business models, customer
preferences, go-to-market plans, technology enablement, and
organizational design.”
Special attention will also be paid to the inherent barriers of
recruiting and assimilating this generation of younger, often
first-time directors.
“We find that the onboarding process can often be improved,”
said TK Kerstetter, CEO of Boardroom Resources and
host of Inside America’s Boardrooms. “It’s also important to
consider board dynamics, particularly when the average board member
is about 20 to 30 years older than this new diverse subset of young
directors. Ultimately, we want Next Gen Board Leaders to help
boards understand how to recruit and assimilate younger directors
to take best advantage of their skills.”
Directors, investors, and governance professionals of all ages
are encouraged to join the conversation by subscribing to emails
from Next Gen Board Leaders (subscribe via
NextGenBoardLeaders.com). A monthly newsletter will pose discussion
questions, share editorials, and feature Q&A interviews with
advisory council members.
“I've found that the most progress is made when a solution or
conclusion incorporates the best of different perspectives and
experiences,” said Tsay. “We also need directors and governance
professionals of all ages to join these 'generational'
conversations, as it may mean that we all have to re-think the role
of directors and how best to leverage and incorporate them.”
About Spencer Stuart: At Spencer Stuart, we
know how much leadership matters. We are trusted by organizations
around the world to help them make the senior-level leadership
decisions that have a lasting impact on their enterprises. Through
our executive search, board and leadership advisory services, we
help build and enhance high-performing teams for select clients
ranging from major multinationals to emerging companies to
nonprofit institutions.
Privately held since 1956, we focus on delivering knowledge,
insight and results through the collaborative efforts of a team of
experts -- now spanning 56 offices, 30 countries and more than 50
practice specialties. Boards and leaders consistently turn to
Spencer Stuart to help address their evolving leadership needs in
areas such as senior-level executive search, board recruitment,
board effectiveness, succession planning, in-depth senior
management assessment and many other facets of organizational
effectiveness. For more information on Spencer Stuart, please visit
www.spencerstuart.com
About Nasdaq: Nasdaq (Nasdaq:NDAQ) is a leading
global provider of trading, clearing, exchange technology, listing,
information and public company services. Through its diverse
portfolio of solutions, Nasdaq enables customers to plan, optimize
and execute their business vision with confidence, using proven
technologies that provide transparency and insight for navigating
today's global capital markets. As the creator of the world's first
electronic stock market, its technology powers more than 90
marketplaces in 50 countries, and 1 in 10 of the world's securities
transactions. Nasdaq is home to 3,800 total listings with a market
value of $11 trillion. To learn more, visit:
http://business.nasdaq.com.
About Boardroom Resources: Boardroom Resources
is an educational platform for board members, corporate
secretaries, and governance professionals. We produce content
across several formats, including weekly blog posts, events, email
newsletters, and a web show called “Inside America’s Boardrooms”.
Our charge started many years ago, as founder TK Kerstetter has
long been on a mission to improve board performance—particularly by
creating new board education formats and sparking conversations
that push the envelope. Now, Boardroom Resources is focused on
connecting the dots between longstanding board practices, new
ideas, and the personal experiences of today’s corporate directors.
Today’s companies are in a constant state of evolution, and the
same should be true for today’s boards of directors.
Contact:
Boardroom Resources
Kerie Kerstetter
kerie@boardroomresources.com
www.BoardroomResources.com
Spencer Stuart
Tim McNary
tmcnary@spencerstuart.com
www.SpencerStuart.com
Nasdaq
Will Briganti
william.briganti@nasdaq.com
www.business.nasdaq.com
Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024