Kim BrattainFounder/ CEO, Kim Brattain Media · Award-winning Corporate and Documentary Film Producer

Lead Director or the Non-executive Chair - Peter Browning Partners | Kim Brattain Media

27 May 2014 · 1 min

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1:02

The speaker outlines the modern responsibilities of a lead director or non‑executive chair in board governance. The role functions as an honest broker between the board and the CEO, conducts sessions for independent directors, and provides direct feedback to the CEO. Drawing on personal experience as a lead director in four different companies, the speaker notes that the lead director meets with the CEO regularly—often quarterly, sometimes monthly—to act as a sounding board, discuss how to present issues to the board, and navigate difficult board dynamics. Over the past ten years, this position has become increasingly critical in ensuring effective board‑CEO interaction and handling complex governance challenges.

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In this new world of board governance, it's a critical role. It, number one, acts as the liaison or the honest broker between the board and the CEO and the CEO and the board. They conduct the sessions of the independent directors. That individual provides feedback to the CEO. In many cases, I know when I've been lead director in 4 different circumstances, I was meeting either quarterly, in some cases monthly, with the CEO as a sounding board to talk about issues that— how would we get these in front of the board, how we might deal with a particular difficult issue with the board. So it has evolved into a very, very important position, certainly over these last 10 years.