Can We Talk: Unpacking The Modern Boardroom Dynamic

New research, real stories, and practical takeaways on building high-performing boards where all voices are encouraged and heard.

In collaboration with the University of Washington’s Center for Leadership and Strategic Thinking in the Foster School of Business, BoardReady is proud to present new research exploring how today's public and private boards are working on fostering full participation to be more inclusive and high-performing. Drawing from 40 in-depth interviews with a broad sample of public company board directors, this research reveals practical insights and strategies that boards can and do use to support recruiting, onboarding, mentorship, and how they focus on the development of new directors. Together, we’ll examine what constitutes full engagement of all board directors and what inclusion and high performance looks like in a broad range of board engagements, as well as how those boards can create the conditions where all of the directors can thrive in seeking to support the company’s leadership
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8:00 AM – 8:30 AM: Networking

8:30 AM – 8:45 AM: Session 1 - Welcome and opening remarks by Deanna & Claudia of BoardReady

· Setting the stage: background information on our 5 years of research on the S&P 500 companies, where BoardReady researchers and staff examined why inclusion and development are essential to high performing board governance interactions/performance.

· Framing the research collaboration with UW and the goals and anticipated value for directors on boards, as well as the company’s leadership.

8:45 AM – 9:45 AM: Session 2 - Interactive Panel and Roundtable by UW Team

· Overview of the research methodology, preliminary findings, and other relevant research, applications, and takeaways on this topic

o Introduce the session’s panel members and highlights their work related to this board project

o Key themes/focus: director recruiting, onboarding, mentorship, governance engagements, and inclusion practices used by board members and chairs.

o Common challenges faced by women board members and the type of opportunities created by highly functioning boards to have all members be fully engaged.

· Interactive discussion that prompts small-group table conversations throughout the panel (the breakout facilitators will be interviewees who participated in the study)

· Recap and next steps on advancing board participation and board performance.

Speaker Bios:

Session 1:

• Claudia Longo is the Managing Director of BoardReady, where she helps corporations build stronger, more diverse, and forward-thinking boards. She partners with companies to connect them with top-tier board members and works closely with a network of senior executives to foster innovation, diversity, and long-term success in the boardroom. A dynamic leader and social entrepreneur, Claudia is also the founder of MS, I’mpossible, a nonprofit empowering young adults living with Multiple Sclerosis. Her experience spans both corporate and nonprofit sectors, leading initiatives that strengthen leadership, build resilience, and drive mission-aligned growth. Claudia has shared her insights on leadership and transformative change at global platforms like TEDx, where she spoke on turning adversity into opportunity, and has been recognized in the community for her leadership – most recently being named a PSBJ 40 under 40 Honoree.

• Phyllis Campbell: Phyllis has an extensive career of board service and executive leadership. She currently serves as a board member of Remitly (RELY) and the Air Transport Services Group, and as an Advisory Board member for both SanMar and the Allen Institute. Previously, Phyllis served on the Nordstrom board of directors and as an independent director of Alaska Air Group. Her past executive experience includes serving as Vice Chairman and Regional Chair of the Pacific Northwest for JPMorgan Chase from 2009 to 2023. In addition to her board work, Phyllis is the Founder of PJC Consulting, offering corporate director and board advisory services, serves as a Senior Advisory Consultant with Egon Zehnder, and co-founded 501c3, BoardReady.

Session 2:

• Crystal Farh is a professor of management in the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington in Seattle. She completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology with honors at Harvard College and received her doctorate in organizational behavior at the University of Maryland at College Park. Before joining the faculty at Foster in 2015, she served as an assistant professor at the Broad College of Business of the Michigan State University. Since 2021, she has served as the faculty director of Foster’s PhD Program.

• Alicia DeSantola is an assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship and the Helen Moore Gerhardt Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. She received her PhD in organizational behavior from Harvard University and her research has been published in Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Harvard Business Review, the Journal of Organization Design, and Academy of Management Annals. She is a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award ("Professor of the Year") for Foster's M.S. in Entrepreneurship program and was named by Poets & Quants as a "Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professor.

• Bruce Avolio: Mark Pigott Chair in Business Strategic Leadership/Executive Director, Center for Leadership & Strategic Thinking Michael G. Foster School ofBusiness, University of Washington. Bruce has published 12 books and over 150 articles on leadership and organizational models/methods on transformative change inindividuals, teams and organizations. He has consulted with hundreds of organizations around the globe in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America,Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, in the design and delivery of senior leadership development systems. His field consulting and research projects range from engaging with large complex organizational systems, technology, aerospace, energy, insurance, banking, Wall Street firms, automotive manufacturing, government agencies, VA, for profit, not for profit and faith-based healthcare systems, large and small research centers, entrepreneurial start-ups, all levels of educational institutions, correctional services, and various branches of themilitary here and abroad. Based on a recently completed Stanford University study, out of 6,880,389 scientists, who have published at least five papers in any of 22 majordisciplines, ranging from biology to engineering to economics to management, Bruce’s research record was rated in the top 0.01% of the most-cited scientific researchers overall, and #25 among allresearchers in business & management.

BoardReady was born out of a shared belief that current business leaders must find avenues of inviting future diversity into the boardroom. And given there is a strong pool of diverse candidates, we help make that a reality.

Our mission is simple: to empower every organization to achieve an exceptionally diverse and inclusive board.

And our vision is clear: resilient organizations where diversity drives success for all stakeholders.

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