One Woman’s Journey from C-Suite to Boardroom

Learnings from my efforts to break through barriers on the next step in my career

When I left my long-time role as CEO of a global communications agency two years ago, I began looking for my next challenge. I wanted to do something different. At the same time, like my agency work, I wanted to have an impact on business by helping companies make the transition to being purpose-driven. I felt the best way I could have that kind of impact would be to offer my services as a board member to companies where I felt a strong connection with their mission and where my expertise could add value. 

I also felt strongly about the importance of adding gender diversity to the boardroom. While the percentage of board seats held by women and other under-represented groups is rising – as of last July, companies in the S&P 500 each had at least one woman on the board -- the data overall didn’t tell a good story. A global study of boardrooms by Deloitte found that women hold just one out of six board seats. The numbers for board chair are worse: Men hold about 95% of them.  

That’s not just bad for women, it’s bad for business. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that diversity in the boardroom makes for more effective boards, and studies have shown that companies with more women on their boards “are associated with higher R&D intensity, obtain more patents, and report higher levels of overall innovation,” according to the MIT Sloan Management Review. So greater cognitive diversity on boards is not just necessary, it is essential.

With boards still dominated by older white men, though, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised at what I discovered when I began my search. The feedback from the executive search firms that specialize in board appointments was fairly consistent. First to get on the board of a public company, you need to have prior experience on a public company board (how’s that supposed to work?). Second, for a woman to be considered for a seat, she almost always needs a background in legal or financial. And lastly, very few board seats become available. While the search firms said they are trying to get companies to think differently, it’s not an easy task.

Every Challenge an Opportunity

Where did that leave me? As a woman, and a former CEO with a background in corporate communications, marketing and brand reputation, I didn’t fit the norm. And that posed a real challenge for me that I was determined to overcome. 

Throughout my life, I’ve embraced every challenge I’ve faced; I just see the “impossible” as possible. Even when I may not have had all the business skills or experience others perceived to be necessary for a job, I’ve been able to succeed because of an intuitive sense of what might be around the corner and a willingness to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations.

That’s how I came to move from England to California, with only an ambition to establish a technology PR agency and build it into a formidable competitor to the most established global agencies.  We succeeded and worked with some of the most iconic disrupters in the technology industry like Xerox PARC, Cisco and IBM. It also enabled me to become connected with great thinkers at The Aspen Institute, The MIT Media Lab and the TED community. It’s the same attitude I took when I began looking at board service.

It took me back to my roots in Europe, and relied on both the network I have built during my career, along with the ability I honed as a communications executive to understand the key issues boards face today. That’s hardly the traditional route to the boardroom, but I hope that by looking at my journey, other women may find some ideas to help them on their leadership path.

Following My Passions

I have always gravitated toward organizations that shared my values.  Two of those values inspired my journey to board service. The first was a desire to help companies deal with their existential crisis of the moment: how to discover their purpose in the world and understanding how that aligns with the creation of shareholder value. That’s something I tried to do with all my agency’s clients, because today’s customers, business or consumer, increasingly put purpose at the top of their purchase criteria.

My other passion has been to work across international borders and develop communities that share a common set of values and a culture that transcends borders. Having worked on both sides of the Atlantic, I understood the importance for companies everywhere to build such cultures, which can only happen if they are diverse.

That passion guided me to examine the current status of boards in the EU.  Because diversity was moving glacially under voluntary efforts by business, many European countries wisely enacted legislation mandating that companies appoint women to their boards. It’s a crucial shift in governance that is only beginning to take hold in the US (starting, as so many progressive trends do, in California, where the state now requires a minimum number of women on the board of public companies with headquarters in California and soon will extend that mandate to include racial diversity).

Once I made that decision, I told as many people as I knew that I wanted to join a European listed company – preferably in Ireland or England, where my particular international experience might add the most value. 

The Breakthrough

My breakthrough introduction, courtesy of a friend of a friend (because that’s how it works), was to the internal search executive at The IP Group plc (LON:IPO).  It is a company with a deep sense of purpose focused on investing in great innovation to help companies with those ideas become world-changing businesses.  (As I write this, one of its earliest investments, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, has been given the go ahead by the UK government to provide 90 minute COVID-19 testing.)

IP Group was looking to appoint a non-executive director (fondly know as NEDs in the UK) who had a background in technology disruption and digital transformation, along with a healthy dose of marketing and strategic communications experience. That’s a mark of a progressive board. After an extensive, but most enjoyable, interview process I was appointed to the board in June 2019. I’m also gratified that recruiting one woman often creates a “feedback loop” that can lead to more women becoming candidates for open seats. I’m proud to say that half the IP Group’s NEDs are female.  

The Journey Continues

Since earning my NED seat at The IP Group, I have joined the boards of two US companies: Rosetta Stone Inc.(NYSE:RST) and Tupperware Brands (NYSE:TUP). Both of which are iconic brands with a strong sense of purpose. Again, I was introduced to these opportunities through contacts I had made in my prior career, one via The Henry Crown Fellowship board practice at The Aspen Institute; the other via a major Executive Search professional who’s personal mission is to drive change within the board room.

I’m personally excited about the opportunities I have now, and will have in the future as I expand my board work. I’m also excited that the opportunities are rapidly expanding for women and other under-represented groups to be, as the lyrics go in Hamilton, “in the room where it happens,” The Alliance for Board Diversity forecasts that women and minorities will hold 40% of Fortune 500 board seats by 2024. 

For women who want to be part of that, and even accelerate that, I would share my key learnings from my journey so far:

1. Networking is everything. Ensure that you have built a strong network throughout your career as people already on boards who know you are more helpful than executive search firms for your first board seat. While we often think about our informal network, make sure you build some formal networks too.  My fellowship at The Aspen Institute, The TED community and The International Womens Forum were all super helpful for me.
2. Become a student of the C-suite.  We are increasingly working across the c-suite and so its already imperative to interrogate an annual report, understand corporate governance and regulatory issues and what’s top of mind for the board.
3. Gain board experience early.  It’s remarkable how similar Private and Not-for-Profit boards are to Public boards but often without the fiduciary responsibilities.  I was fortunate to have been a board Director of Technoserve and a Trustee of The Page Society for over ten years.  Both incredibly well run and very close to my public board experience.  And in the latter years joining the MIT Media Lab Advisory Council was also incredibly informative.
4. Think about your biography now.  What would make for a compelling board member?  Some forethought is important as how you present yourself for a board seat will be very different to how you present yourself for your next career move. I reworked my bio several times before hitting on the experiences that most resonated.
5. Take some risks. I have always been most successful by being open and transparent and willing to put myself beyond my own comfort zone. It has always led to a more informed, more productive and ultimately more authentic outcome. 
6. Issues and an international perspective matter. Specific experience in the issues that are top of mind for boards will open doors; right now that’s very much digital disruption, reputation, purpose and culture, DIE, risk and crisis management.  And an international perspective is critical particularly for companies thinking of global expansion and navigating across cultures.