Director Topics:

For most of my career, I have been a director of a private company board – for both the company I worked for and three other private companies. The work has been stimulating and it is exciting to be in the middle of a company’s strategy development and oversight.

The corporate board landscape is changing and the job of a private company director is certainly more complicated and more risky. It can be equally more rewarding if you are willing to make the investment of your time to increase and expand your governance knowledge. Talented women are needed.

Through my membership in the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), I recently attended the 12th Annual Corporate Board Conference presented by the

Institute of Excellence in Corporate Governance (IECG) at the University of Texas in Dallas (UTD). The variety of lectures and panel topics for the daylong event included: “Should We Sell the Company,” “Emerging Technology Opportunities and Risks,” “Politics, the Election & the Economy,” “What Do Board Evaluations Reveal about Board Dynamics,” and “Is Your Business Model Obsolete.”

The most intriguing topic of the day was presented by Richard LeBlanc, author of INSIDE THE BOARDROOM and an expert on board governance. LeBlanc gave an overview of the top ten trends in governance – one of which is cyber risk related to all facets of corporate risk management.

There are four categories of risk in any organization: strategic risk to the core business strategy, operational risk, financial risk and compliance risk. Board members must ask how cyber risk impacts each one of these categories and what is being done to establish processes and programs for the related risk. What don’t we know and what should we know?

As a director, are you asking the right questions about risk?