Why do Supervisory Boards need more Corporate Affairs professionals on board?

This was one of the questions discussed at an insightful event organized by Broome Yasar Partnership in association with FGS Global and NEVIR: the Netherlands Association for Investor Relations , and inspired by their report? based on interviews with some leading NEDs with a corporate affairs, communications or investor relations background.

The knowledgeable panel with Charlotte Lambkin , Dorothy Burwell , Bartho Boer , Hélène Vletter-van Dort and Anne Louise Metz , emphasized in a compelling way why the experiences, skills and competences of corporate affairs and investor relations professionals are so needed in supervisory boards.

Here are my personal take-aways.

• Reputation has a value and good crisis management is invaluable. Non Executive Directors (NEDs) who have crisis management experience can give organizations the confidence? to handle crises in the best interest of the company.
• The complex, global and fastmoving nature of today’s context means that organizations have to take into account and engage a broad range of stakeholders. Therefore they not only need to understand what different stakeholders expect but also what conversations they and their own stakeholders are having, and very importantly, how to balance these interests.
• Your own co-workers are your best ambassadors. Having understanding and experience of how to engage this very important stakeholder group, enhances the functioning of many boards.
• Understanding finance alone is no longer sufficient for a supervisory board, they also need storytellers i.e. experienced professionals who are able to develop and tell a compelling narrative.
• Although shareholders are king or queen, they don’t always oversee the implications of what they want. What boards need are seasoned sense makers and scenario planners to help guide in decision making.

Not surprisingly, the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) committee is an obvious board committee for NEDs with communications or corporate affairs background. Yet it is in the REM (remuneration) committee where they often make an even more important contribution by developing and explaining the narrative behind remuneration decisions and policies.

So what do you need to become a supervisory board member, besides financial literacy? All panelists agreed: lots of time and … speed-reading skills! In a fast moving world, particularly during Mergers and Acquisitions, NEDs involvement will be intense as they have to digest and make sense of lots of information in a short period of time. In addition, they need to have high emotional intelligence to understand the inter-personal dynamics in and outside the room.

Organizations that agree with giving their corporate affairs leaders an opportunity to sit on a supervisory board do benefit as well, argued a few panelists. Being a NED helped them to do a better day-to-day job as they had gained much better understanding of boards' expectations.??

Yet, to me there is a bigger purpose to being a NED. I believe that a good performing supervisory board is critical for a sustainable world. This requires a board that is capable of balancing shareholders and stakeholders interests, a board that understands the role it plays in society and the impact it has on the environment, a board that can navigate internal and external expectations and, last but not least, a board that makes the organization stay the course with its fundamental purpose and values.

That is why I’m so passionate about this and the need for real diversity in supervisory boards.

And that’s why I’m so passionate about investing in talent and the next generation of NEDs. I’m therefore grateful to Anita van de Velde - Rayat for having invited me again to being a mentor in the UNFOLD 2025 mentorship programme and being part of the movement, which she initiated and co-created with Corporate Affairs leaders to positively shape the role of business.

I'm interested to hear from you how can we make supervisory boards more competent in the face of today's challenges?