How to Tackle Your Board Evaluation

Periodic board evaluations have become part of the accepted corporate governance landscape and it’s really the only way to assess fully the organizations needs and the gaps that need to be filled. Read our whitepaper titled Optimizing Board Evaluations, where together with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, we’ve detailed seven topics to address in your Board Evaluation:

1. Use of Board Time
2. Quality and Quantity of Information
3. Board Culture and Dynamics
4. Board Composition, Leadership Structure and Role of Independent Directors
5. Controls and Compliance
6. Board Oversight
7. Committee Effectiveness

One of the key lessons learned from regulatory compliance is that there needs to be a constant and sharp focus on ensuring systems and controls keep pace with the changing nature and scale of organizations. Looking through this same lense, it’s important to ensure that the board skill-set and experience as a whole continues to provide the entrepreneurial leadership and oversight necessary to deliver long-term value creation and a sustainable business model. As an organization changes, the policy issues and risks considered by the board will change, and the board needs to be up to the task.

Performance reviews are common-place throughout organization and the benefits are now being seen at board-level. It’s generally accepted that regular evaluations can be important to ensure that the board can and does oversee the management of the corporation effectively, by identifying development needs or refreshment for example, but where do you start?

• Should the assessment be conducted orally or by written survey?
• To what extent should a third party facilitate?
• When conducted internally, who in the organization should lead it?
• Should it involve peer review of director performance?

Download our new guide, “Optimizing Board Evaluations” for insight into the common types and formats of board evaluations and various considerations for those designing the assessment.

Get your free copy of Optimizing Board Evaluations

Blake Stephenson -- After being called to the English Bar in 2007, Blake has held governance, risk and compliance roles and has had a particular focus in regulatory compliance and good governance in UK markets infrastructure. His experience in this regard is from SIX Swiss Exchange and the UK's Financial Services Authority (now Financial Conduct Authority), where he supervised the London Stock Exchange Group. Blake also spent time as an advocate towards the European political institutions while working at the Futures and Options Association (now FIA Europe). Since joining NASDAQ in 2013 and before joining the Directors Desk management team in 2015, Blake was the Associate General Counsel in London, ensuring regulatory and governance compliance for NASDAQ's London interests. In addition to being called to the Bar, Blake has a degree with honours from the University of Kent, Canterbury, a Graduate Diploma in Law and a CISI Diploma in Investment Compliance.

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