If you currently have a seat on a board of directors, can you please share how you obtained it and any advice you'd have for a veteran IT executive who hasn't broken into this space yet?

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CIO in Healthcare and Biotecha year ago

I have a couple of seats on different boards. One is a volunteer board for an IT community group. I also sit on the board of one of our company's investments. I have had seats on advisory boards (some paid, some not) and other community boards. I think the key is asking for opportunities. I have had discussions with our board of directors members and asked for their advice and recommendations. I've spoken with other exec team members to ask for their experience. It would seem that the consistent recommendation is to:

1. Express your interest to others and ask for opportunities.
2. Volunteer, community, and non-profit boards are great experiences to learn the process and gain experience.
3. Look for opportunities to be a board observer. This isn't a posted position, but many companies have observer opportunities where you can learn the process, rules, and discussion points. This can be helpful as you are building out your experience.
4. Most board seats seem to be filled by recommendations from others who have served on boards with each other. Therefore, it can be challenging to break in. However, develop relationships.
5. NACD (nacdonline.org) can be a resource to learn about board structure, behavior, and even training and certification. There may be a chapter in your local area.

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CEO in Services (non-Government)a year ago

I do have a set in non-profit organizations and I am working on my for profit board seat. My biggest learning so far is that you are first a business executive that happens to be technology savvy, so highlight your business acumen (is it financial management, strategy, governance, etc) then how your tech expertise augments that business acumen. Additionally, look for companies in where technology / data is a fundamental part of the business model, I’m that way your tech expertise is more relevant and easier to intersect with business outcomes (eg a medtech company that is monetizing data from their surgery equipment).