Corporate Governance: Maximize Your Effectiveness in the Boardroom

The Corporate Governance: Maximize Your Effectiveness in the Boardroom program is designed to give participants a deeper understanding of corporate governance and help boost their effectiveness on a corporate board.

The program is ideal for:

• Current board members and senior executives interested in joining a board who want to understand the various aspects of proactive governance and help drive strategic direction, risk oversight and the establishment of compensation.

• C-suite executives looking to explore the duties and nuances of board service, help strengthen their company's financial return, enterprise risk management and governance diversity, and learn to effectively take on existing and emerging issues.

• Attorneys engaged in legal services who are seeking to learn the fundamentals of corporate governance from a variety of angles and how to assess the effectiveness and execution of governance roles and responsibilities.

Wharton’s Corporate Governance program explores the role, structure, and responsibilities of corporate governance to help you succeed as a board member. This program will enable you to:

• Define the board’s role and responsibilities as well as characteristics of successful board leaders

• Ensure proactive governance and learn how to prepare for potential risks

• Recognize key considerations of compensation and succession planning

• Define strategies for board members, executives, and other environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integrators to respond to conflicting demands and societal challenges to their organization

• Plan for how to manage the competing interests of stakeholders and shareholders

This program enables you to explore the processes and responsibilities that drive corporate governance. It also includes a handbook where you can reflect on the program content and how it can help you succeed in a board member role. Topics addressed in the handbook include:

• Laying the groundwork: Begin by drafting your director bio and exploring the importance of marketing yourself.

• Conducting a personal skills audit: Assess your professional background to help you understand your strengths and any critical gaps in your knowledge or experience for board positions you’re seeking.

• Finding your director doppelganger: Focus on strategically networking with directors who possess experience/characteristic profiles that are similar to yours, as they can help point you toward boards that are looking for a candidate with your profile.

• Demonstrating your grit: Be able to persuasively articulate your experience in crisis/adversity situations.

• Completing a leadership style assessment: Consider how your style informs the way you would manage various stakeholders, as well as which stakeholders you’re most comfortable interacting with and/or advocating for in the boardroom.

• Putting the pieces together: Define and characterize your personal guiding principles via a concise and effective board value statement.