What Makes a Board Excel? | Non-executive Director Programme Series

An effective board is critical to the success of any organisation as it provides oversight and guidance to the management team, sets the strategic direction, and ensures that the organisation is managed in the best interests of its stakeholders. Many factors contribute to this success – yet many of the boards of organisations that have failed followed most of the accepted standards for board operations.

What makes a board truly great, then, is that whenever challenges or unexpected events occur, the board can function at its best and ensure that the organisation is effectively led. This session will discuss the aspects that lead to board success including structure and composition, the role and management of committees, accountability and responsibility, diversity of thought, financial stewardship, effective communication, and board evaluation.

As with any part of an organisation, the board needs to continually evaluate itself to help identify potential gaps in its skills and knowledge. Board assessment can also help to identify potential conflicts of interest or other governance issues that need to be addressed. Overall, board evaluation is an important tool for ensuring that the Board of Directors is functioning at its best and that the organisation is being managed effectively and efficiently.

Guest speaker bio

Angela Seymour-Jackson

Angela joined the Board of Future plc, an online and print media and publishing businesses, when it purchased GoCompare. She was a Non-Executive Director at Rentokil Initial for 9 years. Her board experience spans both listed firms in the UK and USA, and private Venture Capital backed businesses. In her executive career, Angela held senior sales and marketing positions at Aviva and Aegon and was CEO of RAC Motoring.

For more information on the Programme including the other sessions in the series, please visit the Non-executive Director Programme overview.