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Let
people know about your aspirations to get on your company’s board,
including your employer’s chief executive, advises Kemba J Dunham
Want
to land your first corporate board seat? The good news is that companies
increasingly look for senior-level executives with a diversity of
skills and backgrounds. But while the old boys’ network is
fading, you will still need to do some smart networking to get noticed
by recruiters or board nominating committees.
To
enhance your visibility, let people know about your board aspirations.
This includes your employer’s chief executive — and, with
his or her permission, outside directors on the company’s board.
“You
want to cast your net as far and as wide as possible,” says
Charles H King, head of the Americas global board services practice
of recruiters Korn/Ferry International. Involvement with cultural,
religious and political groups provide good networking opportunities
as well.
King
suggests aspiring board members acquire knowledge about corporate
governance by attending governance conferences, which can also provide
access to valuable recruiters and other contacts.
Nonprofit
board service represents another highly regarded way to get to know
directors of public companies and gain relevant board experience.
Jenne K Britell, a 59-year-old consultant, was on the board of the
Franklin Institute, a Philadelphia science museum, when fellow board
member William Avery asked her about becoming a director of Crown
Cork & Seal Co., where he was then chairman and chief executive.
Britell
joined Crown Cork’s board last year and subsequently gained
directorships at three more publicly held concerns. “Nonprofit
boards increasingly resemble public boards in terms of recognizing
their ethical, moral and fiduciary responsibilities,” she says.
She estimates she has served on more than a dozen such boards during
the past 25 years.
Britell
believes her global and financial experience as former executive
vice president of global consumer finance for General Electric Co.’s
GE Capital Corp unit also helped her win public-company board seats.
Online
matches
Most
directorship searches begin through informal channels. Now, a San
Francisco start-up called BoardSeat.com is trying to automate the
initial steps.
The
matching service targets people seeking their first board seat at
private companies or newly public ones. Individuals register at
its Web site free of charge and provide information such as their
current position and functional expertise. BoardSeat electronically
matches candidates with openings. The online searches cost companies
between $1,000 and $2,000 each. BoardSeat also conducts retained
board searches.
Rich
Bialek, 44, a former Internet executive, recently used the service
to obtain a directorship at Serengeti Software, a closely held software
company in San Jose, California. He says it took about 10 minutes
to fill out the online questionnaire. Within a few weeks, he met
BoardSeat’s founder and CEO, Stephen Fowler. Fowler says the
system will soon be even more automated. Currently, he says, “If
the system brings their name up, then we contact them.”
Board
Equality?
More
women join corporate boards each year, but that growth has slowed
lately, recent surveys suggest.
Catalyst,
a New York research and advisory group, has tracked the incidence
of female board directors since 1993. “There were big upticks
and then the increase became very small” — largely because
many businesses stopped recruiting women after naming one to the
board, says Sheila Wellington, Catalyst’s president. Nonetheless,
she adds, the number of female directors “keeps going up”.
The
growth in women’s boardroom presence partly reflects the efforts
of numerous groups that assist in networking with recruiters and
nominating committees. Among them is the Financial Women’s
Association. Founded in 1956 in New York, it also has chapters in
Boston, Washington, Chicago and San Francisco. Members must be financial
executives or hold a management role with a financial-services firm.
Besides
reaching out to uncover corporate board openings, the nonprofit
group hosts events where members can learn more about board service
from experts.
Catalyst,
which established a corporate board placement service in 1977, presently
acts as a go-between in placing between 12 and 15 women on public-company
boards every year
.—www.hrhub.com
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