Avsnitt
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What does it mean to sit on an investment trust board when discounts, activism and shareholder scrutiny are no longer exceptional events?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Alexander Denny, an experienced investment company executive and non-executive director, about the changing demands placed on investment trust boards. Alex draws on his work with Fidelity, Pantheon, Apax Global Alpha, Aurora UK Alpha, Margetts Fund Management and the Association of Investment Companies to explain why these roles are increasingly active, time-intensive and strategically important.
The discussion feels especially timely as Saba Capital’s campaign against UK investment trusts continues to test the sector’s governance model, while recent reporting notes that private investor ownership of investment trusts has risen to 27% according to Investment Week. Alex explores how boards should think about discounts, manager accountability, retail engagement, board evaluation, CPD and reputational risk.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(03:30) - From Strategic Challenge to Boardroom Reality(07:15) - Moving from Fidelity to a Portfolio Career(12:13) - What the IoD Commission Found About NEDs(17:33) - CPD, Certification and Director Accountability(19:54) - The Levers Available to Investment Trust Boards(25:04) - Influence, Relationships and Shareholder Engagement(30:02) - What First-Time Investment Trust NEDs Should Check(32:34) - Saba, Activism and Sector Governance(41:06) - Discounts, Valuation and Liquidity Risk(44:21) - How Boards Add Value Beyond Performance(51:55) - The Future of Investment Trust Board Roles
Alexander Denny: Alex Denny is an experienced non-executive director, trustee and consultant with deep expertise in investment trusts, private equity, private wealth and public markets. He joined the board of the Association of Investment Companies in 2022 and became an independent non-executive director of Aurora UK Alpha plc in January 2026. Alex is also an independent non-executive director of Margetts Fund Management, leads the investment companies board hiring practice at Nurole and serves as a trustee of the Nautical Archaeology Society. He was previously Managing Director, European Private Wealth at Pantheon and Head of Investment Companies at Fidelity International, giving him direct experience of investment company governance from both the executive and non-executive sides.Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Investment trust boards are no longer passive stewardship bodies; they increasingly need to show judgement, challenge and visible engagement with managers and shareholders.The shareholder is also the customer in an investment company, which makes communication, retail engagement and discount management core board concerns.Activism can help address poor governance or persistent discounts, but the Saba campaigns show how the sector’s structure can create unusual vulnerabilities.A good NED needs curiosity, sector interest and enough time to build relationships beyond formal board meetings.Board evaluation and ongoing professional development are becoming more important as expectations of NED skill, evidence and accountability rise.
Test your real interest: Before pursuing an investment trust board role, ask whether you are genuinely curious about the company, its asset class and its shareholder base. If the subject does not interest you, it will be hard to bring the energy and judgement the role now demands. Treat motivation as part of your due diligence, not a soft extra.Assess the discount story: Look beyond the headline discount and ask why it exists, who is selling and whether the board has a credible plan to communicate value. Consider whether underperformance is cyclical, structural or linked to weak shareholder engagement. Use this analysis to judge whether you can add value or are walking into unmanaged risk.Build relationships before a crisis: Investment trust NEDs should know the portfolio manager, chair, IR lead, marketing team and key service providers before pressure arrives. These relationships help boards spot problems early and influence constructively. Waiting until activism or poor performance escalates makes effective challenge much harder.Evidence your development: Keep a clear record of relevant CPD, seminars, courses and sector briefings. Alex notes that the UK has limited formal qualification requirements for company directors, which makes self-discipline and evidence of competence more important. Boards should be able to show that directors are keeping pace with market and governance expectations.Treat activism as plausible, not remote: Do not assume an investment trust board will face activism, but do not assume it will avoid it either. Recent Saba campaigns and reporting on rising private investor ownership from Investment Week show why shareholder communication and voting engagement now deserve board-level attention.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path. Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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How should boards govern sport when it is now both a cultural institution and a global asset class?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Tony Simpson, Partner and Sports Industry Lead at Oliver Wyman, about why governance in elite sport has not always kept pace with the money, complexity and scrutiny now flowing through the sector. Tony explains why investors increasingly expect the same professional disciplines they would demand in any other asset class: strong boards, independent challenge, credible financial controls and clear accountability.
The conversation is especially timely. The World Economic Forum and Oliver Wyman report values the global sports economy at $2.3 trillion and projects it could reach $8.8 trillion by 2050, while the UK’s new football regulatory regime is making governance a direct investment variable.
From community representation and women’s sport to succession planning, owner accountability and social cohesion, Tony sets out what modern sports boards need to understand before they take their seats.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(01:12) - Governance in Elite Sport(03:17) - Sport as a Global Asset Class(06:04) - Private Capital and Governance Catch-Up(09:46) - Why Sport Is Different From Other Sectors(13:32) - Building the Right Sports Board(17:33) - Transferring Governance Skills Into Sport(20:46) - Holding Owners Accountable(24:23) - Designing the Ideal Modern Sports Board(29:47) - Sport as a Regulated Utility(33:18) - Skills and Social Empathy for Sports Leaders(35:20) - Why Join a Sports Board
Tony Simpson: Tony Simpson is a Partner and Sports Industry Lead at Oliver Wyman, where he works in the firm’s Communications, Media and Technology practice and leads its Sports and Entertainment work. He advises sports organisations, federations, leagues and investors on international expansion, commercial sustainability, governance, digital change and the role of private capital in sport. Tony is a former Board Advisor to Special Olympics Great Britain, an Independent Observer to the English Rugby Football Union Governance Review, a trustee and board member at Birmingham Museums Trust and a trustee at Drive Forward. In 2023, he was recognised in the Empower 100 Executives Role Model List."If people are putting hundreds of millions of dollars into an asset or a club, you have to have some independence in there that has the ability to say no and the authority to say no." Tony Simpson, Partner and Sports Industry Lead at Oliver Wyman.
Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Sport is now comparable in scale to major global sectors, but many governance structures still reflect its amateur and community origins.Private capital is forcing sports organisations to demonstrate stronger oversight, clearer financial controls and more professional boards.Passion can be a governance risk when owners, executives or directors allow emotional attachment to override evidence-based decision-making.Independent directors matter because sports boards need people with the authority and judgement to challenge both management and ownership.Diverse, compensated boards can help clubs understand their communities more effectively and unlock both social and commercial value.
Map the board skills you actually need: Start with the organisation’s future risks, opportunities and stakeholder pressures. Identify the financial, regulatory, digital, community and sporting expertise required. Build the board around those needs, not around status, tenure or historic connection to the club.Separate passion from governance: Test whether board decisions are being driven by evidence or emotion. Passion for the sport can bring commitment, but it should not override financial discipline, succession planning or long-term stewardship. Use independent voices to challenge assumptions before major commitments.Strengthen owner accountability: Review how the board oversees ownership risk, not just executive performance. Ask what happens if an owner cannot or will not keep funding the club. Treat financial resilience, liquidity and succession as governance issues, not private owner matters.Use community insight commercially: Put genuine community understanding into the boardroom and compensate people properly for their contribution. Diverse perspectives can reveal unmet demand, stronger fan relationships and new revenue opportunities. Community representation should have a clear role, not token status.Prepare for regulated sport: Boards should assume that scrutiny will increase as capital flows into sport and regulation matures. The Football Governance Act and the Independent Football Regulator show how governance is becoming an investment variable. Directors need to understand compliance, licensing and financial sustainability before problems arise.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path. Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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What does it actually take to move from the executive suite into the boardroom, and why do so many capable leaders misjudge the leap?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Catherine May, an experienced chair, non-executive director and certified executive coach with more than 25 years at executive committee level in FTSE 30 businesses including RELX, Centrica and SABMiller. They explore why culture, not capability, decides whether a board succeeds, how aspiring NEDs can read their own fit before committing, and why a board seat is closer to a six-year commitment than a two-day-a-month role.
Catherine also sets out a practical answer to the question every board is now asking: do we need an AI specialist in the room, or a sharper way to bring expertise to the table? Against research showing that boards are openly debating where human judgement should end and AI should begin, with only 37% of directors seeing their board as essential to value creation, this is a grounded guide to building a board career that lasts.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(03:13) - From Executive Committee to the Boardroom(05:19) - Should NEDs Engage Directly With Investors(08:17) - The Corporate Affairs Route Into the Boardroom(10:07) - What Executives Misunderstand About Boards(13:30) - Why Fit Matters More Than Star Power(16:35) - Coaching, Self-Awareness and Knowing Who You Are(20:32) - How the Role of the Board Has Changed(23:15) - The Six-Year Commitment Nobody Expects(27:12) - Reputation, Crisis and Emotional Alignment(31:12) - Capabilities Over Domain Expertise(32:35) - Diversity, Inclusion and a Smarter Boardroom(36:31) - Advisory Boards and the AI Question(42:16) - Constructive Challenge and Psychological Safety(44:08) - Should Every Chair Have a Coach(48:24) - Refreshing Board Talent and the Search Question
Catherine May: Catherine May is an experienced chair, non-executive director, committee chair and certified executive leadership coach, and currently chair of the board at Shoreham Port. She spent more than 25 years at executive committee level in global FTSE 30 businesses, leading corporate affairs, investor relations, sustainability, crisis management, public affairs and brand strategy at RELX, Centrica and SABMiller. She founded Catherine May Associates in 2015, working with senior leaders and boards to strengthen governance, build high-performing cultures and prepare executives for board-level responsibility. She is recognised for her expertise in reputation, risk, leadership development and guiding organisations through transformation, giving her a distinctive perspective at the intersection of leadership, governance and corporate reputation.Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
"Culture for me is the beginning and end of whether a company is going to be successful or not." Catherine May, Chair, Non-Executive Director and Executive Coach
The line between board and management is softer than executives expect; effective NEDs cross it carefully to understand culture without upsetting the apple cart.Culture is the single biggest risk any business faces, because a weak culture quietly enables bad practice and silences the people who would otherwise call it out.Fit matters more than star power; rooms full of grandstanding individuals rarely gel, and succession and nominations should be a continuous conversation, not an annual one.A NED role is a long, serious commitment, closer to six years and far more than the headline day count, so emotional alignment with the organisation is essential before saying yes.Capabilities, attitude and values beat narrow domain expertise; advisory panels, not endless new board seats, are the smarter way to bring specialist insight on issues like AI.
Episode Insights:
Interrogate your fit before you commit: Before accepting a board seat, ask honestly whether you admire the organisation, its people and its products. Picture how you would feel giving far more time than your fee covers if a crisis hit. If the emotional connection is not there, walk away politely before going further.Treat culture as a standing board priority: Find non-disruptive ways to see daily working life across the business rather than relying on management reports. Look for whether people feel safe to call out behaviour that is not right. Use that evidence to satisfy yourself the culture genuinely supports the right behaviours.Appoint for difference, not just comfort: When refreshing the board, resist the easy hire who knows the sector inside out and gets on with everyone. Lean into candidates who bring different perspectives and experience. Pair that with an inclusive chair who ensures every voice is genuinely heard in and out of meetings.Make nominations a continuous conversation: Keep succession and the board pipeline on the agenda at every nominations meeting, not once a year. Encourage directors to scan their networks continually and work with diligent search partners. This de-risks appointments and avoids settling for candidates who do not knock your socks off.Use advisory panels to handle fast-moving issues: Rather than adding a board seat for every emerging risk such as AI, task a small specialist group, including at least one NED, with rapid horizon scanning. Keep it light-footed and focused so it can report back quickly and inform strategy without making the board too big to function.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path. Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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What separates a board that merely complies from one that is genuinely fit for purpose? In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Sam Allen, founder of Sam Allen Associates and an accredited board performance practitioner, about why external board effectiveness reviews are a strategic advantage rather than a regulatory chore.
Sam explains how a rigorous review measures behaviour as well as governance, surfacing where boards are misaligned on strategy, core competence and key risks. She makes the case for assessing whether a board has the right skills for where the business is going, not just where it has been, and why courage and curiosity matter more than airtime.
The conversation lands firmly in the present. With the Jaguar Land Rover cyberattack estimated to have cost the UK economy around 1.9 billion pounds (Cyber Monitoring Centre, via The Register), Sam argues cyber resilience and recovery are now unavoidable board questions, alongside the FRC's new Provision 29 on internal controls. A practical listen for anyone going plural.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(01:12) - Meet Sam Allen and the Case for Independent Reviews(04:28) - Governance as an Enabler, Not a Constraint(05:48) - What a Board Effectiveness Review Really Measures(06:40) - The Misalignment Reviews Reveal, Strategy, Risk and Core Competence(08:11) - Building Trust, Anonymity and Psychological Safety(10:11) - Common Board Blind Spots, Skills Gaps and Chair Dynamics(12:15) - Why New NEDs Can Misread the Role in a Tech-Driven Era(14:32) - Comply or Explain, When Flexibility Serves Shareholders(16:31) - Handling Uncomfortable Feedback and Pragmatic Governance(23:01) - Due Diligence Before Joining a Board(32:17) - Cyber, AI and Preparing for Recovery
Sam Allen: Sam Allen is the founder and Managing Partner of Sam Allen Associates, a boutique board services and executive search firm working with FTSE, private and private-equity backed businesses across the UK and internationally. She leads externally facilitated board and committee effectiveness reviews that blend rigorous governance frameworks with behavioural insight. Before founding the firm, Sam held leadership roles at international search firms Whitehead Mann and Boyden, and earlier spent around 15 years across Sainsbury's, Dunhill and Greene King plc, where she served on the board. She is an accredited board performance practitioner with a Diploma in Corporate Governance from the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland, an MA in Employment Law, and is an accredited commercial mediator. Sam Allen Associates is one of a small number of firms accredited by the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland to undertake board effectiveness reviews.Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
A board effectiveness review measures behaviour as well as governance, and the behavioural deep dive is where misalignment on strategy, core competence and risk usually surfaces.Boards are frequently built for where the business has been, so the sharper question is whether the current composition is fit for purpose for where it is going.Anonymity and a trusted relationship with the chair let difficult feedback (a disruptive NED, a director on email through meetings) finally be acted on.Cyber is the boardroom elephant in the room: the M&S, Co-op and JLR incidents show recovery, not just shutdown, is the part boards under-plan for.The best NEDs bring integrity, curiosity and the courage to say "I don't understand", and often add the most value when they speak least but most deliberately.
Treat the review as a strategy tool, not a compliance task: Ask your evaluator to test alignment on strategic priorities, core competence and key risks, not just governance processes. Use the one-to-one interviews to surface behavioural issues honestly. Focus the output on what will make the board more effective going forward.Reassess board composition against future strategy: Map the skills your strategy will demand over the next three to five years, including new markets and technology literacy. Compare that against the current board and identify gaps. Plan refreshment and succession before the shortfall becomes a problem.Do proper due diligence before joining a board: If you are offered a non-executive role, read the latest board performance review, speak to the auditors, CEO and CFO, and ask about succession and chair feedback. Check board turnover for red flags. Have the courage to request the information you need.Make cyber recovery a board question: Do not stop at prevention. Ask management whether the organisation could run a minimal viable business without technology, where the continuity plan is stored, and who the specialist responders are. Keep those contacts to hand before an incident, not during one.Build continuous risk education into the board calendar: Schedule regular external briefings on cyber, AI and emerging risks so the whole board stays current. The aim is not technical mastery but the confidence to challenge and connect these risks to strategy. Pair education with a tested recovery plan.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path. Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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Why do boards full of brilliant, experienced people still make catastrophic decisions?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson sits down at London Business School with Professor Randall Peterson, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Academic Director of the School's Leadership Institute, to argue that board failure is rarely about intelligence and almost always about behaviour. Drawing on his book Disaster in the Boardroom, Randall unpacks the predictable human dynamics, subordination to a dominant CEO, groupthink and the quiet suppression of dissent, that derail otherwise capable boards.
The conversation could not be timelier. With the FRC pushing UK boards away from tick-box reporting toward outcomes under the 2026 Corporate Governance Code, and recent industry data showing that 93% of leaders blame culture rather than technology for stalled AI adoption, Randall makes the case that culture, not compliance, decides whether a board succeeds. He explores why the best directors lead with curiosity, why the chair's most important skill is listening, how to engage diverse voices rather than merely seat them, and where AI helps, and where directors quietly feeding board papers into open tools should worry.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(03:35) - From University Board to Board Scholar(05:23) - The Story behind Disaster in the Boardroom(08:10) - Capability, Culture and Collective Psychology(11:27) - What Makes Good Boards Dysfunctional(13:29) - Subordination and Groupthink(16:26) - Comply or Explain and the Limits of Compliance(21:42) - Board Evaluations and NED Certification(25:33) - The Chair as Chief Listener(30:22) - Representation versus Engagement(33:19) - Conflict and Why Voting Backfires(38:19) - Where AI Fits in the Boardroom
Randall Peterson: Professor Randall S. Peterson is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School and the founding Academic Director of its Leadership Institute. He holds a PhD in social and organisational psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and has spent more than three decades researching board dynamics, CEO personality, team conflict and the behaviour of senior leaders. His award-winning work has appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Forbes and leading academic journals, and he is co-author, with Gerry Brown, of Disaster in the Boardroom: Six Dysfunctions Everyone Should Understand. He also co-founded TalentSage, an evidence-based leadership development firm, and advises chairs, boards and regulators internationally on board effectiveness and governance culture.Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Board failure is usually behavioural, not technical: capable directors still fail when the culture discourages open discussion and honest challenge.Culture is measurable and decisive: a curious, learning-focused board that welcomes naive questions consistently outperforms one fixated on compliance.Subordination and groupthink are the most dangerous dynamics: once a board defers to a dominant CEO or self-censors to fit in, independent oversight quietly disappears.The chair's most important skill is listening: it both informs better decisions and creates the psychological safety directors need to speak up.Representation is not engagement: diverse voices only shape decisions when the chair actively gives them a platform, because in any group truth needs support to win.
Put culture on the agenda, not just strategy: Boards happily spend a whole day on strategy yet rarely give an hour to how they work together. Schedule an honest, recurring discussion of board culture and behaviour, treating it as a measurable driver of performance. Ask whether people feel able to raise difficult issues and challenge one another constructively.Lead with curiosity and the naive question: Prize directors who keep asking why something works the way it does, not just those with the longest CVs. Make it normal to pause on a routine item and probe it, because that is where boards uncover what they did not know they should discuss. Protect the person who asks the awkward question rather than letting the group close ranks.Reframe compliance as the floor, not the ceiling: Treat the FRC's comply-or-explain code as a baseline and be willing to explain a considered departure rather than tick boxes for an easy life. Under the 2026 UK Corporate Governance Code, the regulator wants outcomes and cogent explanation, not boilerplate. If you cannot explain a choice clearly, question whether you understand it well enough.Set clear guardrails for AI in the boardroom: Agree where AI genuinely helps, summarising papers, background research and surfacing alternatives, and where it must not go, such as confidential board papers pasted into open tools. Recent industry data shows 93% of leaders blame culture rather than technology for stalled AI adoption, so invest in behaviour and literacy, not just tools. Keep judgement, not the model, in the board seat.Give different voices a real platform: Adding diverse directors is not the same as engaging them, because a lone voice rarely carries in a group. Help newer or less traditional members build standing, for example by chairing a committee, so their contributions are taken seriously. Resolve disagreement through discussion rather than rushing to a vote, which can be weaponised and silences dissent.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path. Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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What does the market see about your board that you cannot see from the inside?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Steven Fine, Chief Executive of Peel Hunt and co-founder of the Non-Executive Director Awards, about how boards are really judged: not by internal evaluations, but by investors, analysts and markets in real time. They explore why courage now defines great non-executive directors, how the role of the chair has grown, and why shareholder connectivity matters more than ever in a derated UK market.
"You can have the best governance in the world and no one cares. It's not reflected in the share price." Steven Fine, Chief Executive of Peel Hunt.
Fine makes a pointed case on fund flows, noting that UK pension funds hold a historic low of around 4.4% of assets in domestic equities while comparable systems hold far more. With the Pension Schemes Act 2026 now law and the FCA's new prospectus rules live since January 2026, the conversation could not be timelier. From comply or explain to the realities of listing in the US, this is a practical guide for NEDs who want to understand how capital markets keep score.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(02:45) - Inside Peel Hunt and the NED Awards(04:24) - A Forensic, Multi-Stage Judging Process(08:00) - Twenty Years On: Why the NED Role Is Harder(10:04) - Courage and What Good Looks Like Today(13:13) - Permacrisis and Calm Under Pressure(15:26) - How Investors Really Judge Boards(18:56) - Governance, Valuation and De-Rating(22:33) - Passives and Becoming Beholden to Maths(24:43) - US Versus UK Listings and Reform(30:33) - Preparing to IPO as a Public Company(34:11) - Board Leadership Versus Composition
Steven Fine: Steven Fine is Chief Executive of Peel Hunt, a UK-focused specialist investment bank serving public and private companies across the FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and AIM. He joined the firm in 2006 and led its management and staff buy-out from KBC Bank in 2010, becoming CEO in 2016. Earlier in his career he was a founder member of D. E. Shaw Securities International and ran Japanese and Asian equity, convertible and derivatives operations in Tokyo. He is co-founder of the Non-Executive Director Awards, now in their 20th year, and has judged them for over 15 years. Steven also serves as Deputy Chair of the FCA Markets Practitioner Panel and as a non-executive director of the Quoted Companies Alliance and RetailBook, giving him a rare vantage point across capital markets, governance and board performance.Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
The market is the ultimate external examiner of a board: internal effectiveness reviews can become box-ticking, while investors and analysts judge governance in real time.Courage now defines great non-executive directors: the willingness to challenge, ask awkward questions and speak up matters more than technical expertise.Good governance does not automatically lift valuations; without fund flows and advocacy, even well-run UK companies can stay de-rated and overlooked.The UK's listing problem is one of capital, not rules: regulatory reform has cut friction, but domestic pension allocations to UK equities sit near historic lows.Comply or explain may be better understood as explain or comply: Fine backs the push to celebrate explanations and challenge needless disclosure.
Build genuine shareholder connectivity: Treat investor relationships as a board-level priority, not a job left solely to the executive or the IR team. Map who actually owns and votes your stock, including the multiple fund managers that can sit behind a single name. Offer non-executives access to major shareholders rather than waiting to be asked.Stop marking your own homework: Challenge how your board runs its effectiveness review and resist the urge to score everything nine or ten out of ten. Bring genuine external perspective into the process and act on uncomfortable findings. Use the review to surface real gaps in judgement and behaviour, not simply to satisfy the code.Lead with courage, not consensus: Encourage every director to ask the questions others assume are already answered. Make space for quieter voices and ensure the chair draws out challenge rather than smoothing it over. In a period of constant crisis, calm and well-rehearsed challenge is what separates effective boards from average ones.Pressure-test your listing strategy: If you are weighing a UK or US listing, look past the headlines about de-rating and orphan stocks. Weigh quarterly reporting, fees and litigation risk against genuine access to capital, and recognise that UK reform has materially reduced friction. Engage an adviser early and prepare the finance function well ahead of any IPO.Embrace explain over comply: Audit your board papers and annual report for disclosure that exists only out of caution. Ask whether each paper, gap analysis or extra page genuinely aids decisions or simply adds bulk. Treat the regulator's myth-busting as licence to focus reporting on what matters to shareholders.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path. Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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How should boards lead when judgement, not information, has become the scarcest resource in the room?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Helle Bank Jorgensen, Global Managing Director for Board Development at Board Intelligence and founder of Competent Boards, about what board leadership looks like now. They move from a world of separate risks to one of interconnected risk, where a capital decision is also a climate, geopolitical and reputational decision, and where the old governance instincts are no longer enough.
Helle argues that boards rarely fail through a lack of effort or data; they fail by waiting too long for a certainty that never comes. With AI moving quickly into governance, and Lloyds becoming the first FTSE 100 company to bring an AI tool into its boardroom, the conversation asks where augmentation ends and abdication begins. From stewardship versus strategy to scenario planning, board culture and keeping judgement human, this is a practical guide for NEDs who want to contribute, not simply attend.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(01:12) - Introducing Helle Bank Jorgensen(03:05) - From Separate Risk to Interconnected Risk(04:06) - Governance, Stewardship and the Strategist Board(07:16) - Activity versus Contribution(10:51) - Leading in a Matrix World(12:42) - Thinking the Unthinkable(15:49) - Culture, Courage and Signal from Noise(21:22) - AI in the Boardroom: Master or Servant?(28:52) - A Director's AI Playbook(31:00) - Why Boards Wait, and How to Decide(34:48) - Navigating ESG and Stakeholders
Helle Bank Jorgensen: Helle Bank Jorgensen is Global Managing Director for Board Development at Board Intelligence and the founder and former CEO of Competent Boards, the governance education platform acquired by Board Intelligence in 2025. An internationally recognised authority on board effectiveness, governance and sustainability, she has spent three decades turning environmental, social and governance risk into long-term value, and has educated directors in more than 60 countries through the Global Competent Boards Designation. She is the author of The Future Boardroom: How to Transform in Turbulent Times and Stewards of the Future, a number one Amazon bestselling author, and was inducted into the Corporate Governance Hall of Fame by IR Magazine.Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
The scarce resource in the boardroom is no longer information but judgement; AI widens access to insight, yet makes disciplined decision-making harder, not easier.Stewardship reframes the board's job from "are we doing things right?" to "are we doing the right things for long-term resilience and value?", with the strongest boards acting as strategists.In a matrix world, every decision is at once financial, geopolitical, environmental and reputational, so directors must sense around corners rather than predict a single outcome.AI belongs in board preparation, not in the vote; it can make directors the best-informed people in the room, but accountability and judgement cannot be outsourced to a bot.Boards rarely fail by acting too quickly; they fail by waiting for certainty, so the real skill is deciding which few risks matter and acting before the picture is complete.
Decide to be the master, not the servant: Agree as a board how AI tools will and will not be used before you adopt them. Treat AI as a way to ask sharper questions and test your own thinking, not as a substitute for judgement. Keep accountability for every decision firmly with the directors around the table.Run real scenario planning: Build the muscle to think the unthinkable rather than assuming the future will resemble the past. Schedule sessions that stress-test severe risks, from cyber to climate, as live rehearsals rather than compliance exercises. Luck favours the prepared, so know what you would do before you have to do it.Separate signal from noise: Resist the assumption that more data means more insight, because volume on its own simply creates more noise. Insist that management presents structured, prioritised information that surfaces insight rather than raw reporting. Agree the few critical questions that genuinely matter and hold the board's attention there.Protect AI judgement and security: Set clear principles for which tools directors may use and what information can be shared with them. Avoid feeding confidential strategy into open, consumer AI products where data may leak. Choose secure, board-grade systems and keep a critical eye on whatever the model suggests.Upskill the whole board: Make continuous learning a shared expectation, not an individual choice, so every director can engage at the same level. A board cannot have a real discussion if some members ask basic questions while others challenge with nuance. Commit to ongoing development so your few questions each meeting are the right ones.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path. Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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What does good governance actually look like when the rules keep changing and the pressure keeps rising?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Maureen Beresford, Director of Corporate Governance and Stewardship at the Financial Reporting Council, about why governance is fundamentally about judgement, not tick boxes, and why the best boards are those brave enough to explain rather than simply comply.
They explore the philosophy behind the UK Corporate Governance Code, the power of the "comply or explain" principle, and why so many boards still default to compliance when flexibility is exactly what the Code offers. At a time when 88 companies left the London Stock Exchange last year and the government has scrapped the long-awaited audit reform legislation, the conversation could not be more timely.
From the new Provision 29 declaration on material controls to the evolving role of proxy advisors and the future of investor stewardship, Maureen makes a compelling case that governance is an art, not a science, and that the boards which lead best are those prepared to think for themselves.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(02:06) - A Career in Governance: From Civil Service to the FRC(03:09) - Where the FRC Fits in the Governance Ecosystem(05:49) - What Governance Is Actually For(07:08) - Governance as a Grey Area: Judgement over Certainty(09:23) - The 2024 Code: What Changed and Why(11:57) - Comply or Explain: Boards Being Brave(14:42) - Proxy Advisors, Investors and the Trust Gap(20:08) - Transparency, Reporting and the Cost of Governance(23:25) - Provision 29: The New Declaration on Internal Controls(31:00) - Stewardship, Investment and the Public-Private Debate(37:10) - The Crystal Ball: Future Skills and Challenges for Boards
Maureen Beresford: Maureen Beresford is the Director of Corporate Governance and Stewardship at the Financial Reporting Council, the UK regulator responsible for corporate governance, reporting and stewardship. A former civil servant for over 20 years within the Department for Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy, Maureen moved to the FRC on secondment in 2017 to work on the review of the UK Corporate Governance Code and subsequently helped introduce the Wates Principles for Large Private Companies alongside Sir James Wates. Appointed Head of Corporate Governance in 2020, Maureen led the comprehensive review that produced the Corporate Governance Code 2024 and was instrumental in launching the FRC's annual assessments of governance reporting. In 2024 Maureen became Acting Director and was appointed to the full-time Director role in June 2025, taking on responsibility for the Stewardship Code alongside corporate governance.Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Governance is fundamentally about conversations, judgement and accountability, not checklists or compliance; a tick-box approach is, in Maureen's view, "potentially worthless."An explanation under the "comply or explain" framework is just as good as compliance, and often better, because it demonstrates that the board is actively thinking about governance rather than blindly following the Code.Provision 29 of the 2024 Code requires boards to declare the effectiveness of their material controls, but it deliberately does not prescribe which controls, how many, or how to write the declaration; that judgement rests with the board.The relationship between boards, proxy advisors and investors is more nuanced than many assume; proxy advisors say they do highlight explanations to investors, and investors say they do not always follow proxy advice automatically.Boards should be more fluid in their composition, willing to refresh before the nine-year convention if needed, and mindful that overboarding in a world of perpetual crisis can leave individual companies without adequate director attention.
Embrace the power of explanation: Review your board's governance reporting and ask whether you are defaulting to compliance simply to avoid a perceived black mark. Challenge yourselves to identify at least one provision where an honest, well-reasoned explanation would better reflect how your company is actually governed, and commit to making that case transparently in your next annual report.Prepare for the Provision 29 declaration: If you have not already done so, map your material controls across financial, operational, reporting and compliance activities. Use the FRC's mythbuster guidance as a starting point. The declaration applies to financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026, so this is the year to embed the process.Tell your governance story from a blank page: Rather than tweaking last year's governance report, start from scratch and ask what story you want to tell this year. Focus on outcomes, not boilerplate, and build that narrative throughout the year rather than rushing it at year-end.Strengthen investor engagement outside proxy season: Do not wait for the annual general meeting to engage with your investors. Identify your key shareholders, understand their stewardship priorities, and open channels for dialogue year-round. Where votes go against you, treat that as an opportunity to listen, not a threat to manage.Audit your board's composition for the challenges ahead: Review whether your board has the right mix of experience for emerging risks such as cyber, AI and geopolitics. Be willing to refresh earlier than convention suggests, and consider whether any directors are overboarded to the extent that a simultaneous crisis across multiple companies would stretch their capacity.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path. Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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How should boards be thinking about risk, capital and growth when the UK economy is structurally constrained and the geopolitical landscape is shifting beneath their feet?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Simon French, Chief Economist and Head of Research at Panmure Liberum, about why macroeconomic awareness is no longer optional for board directors. They explore the structural challenges facing UK PLC, from the rationing of energy, capital and land to a labour market squeezed by rising on-costs and the early disruption of AI, and why boards need to reframe risk as an enabler of growth rather than something to be feared.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(02:31) - A Career Spanning the Public and Private Sector(04:27) - Why Boards Need Macro Thinking in a Polycrisis World(06:27) - Capital Markets, Shareholder Engagement and Rationing(09:00) - Corporate Governance in a Post-Ukraine Economy(10:47) - The Black Knight Economy: Resilience amid Structural Constraint(15:51) - Brexit, EU Alignment and the Defence Opportunity(19:34) - The Rationing of Inputs: Energy, Land and Capital(22:23) - UK Investibility and the Patient Capital Opportunity(30:19) - Permacrisis, Inflation and Interest Rate Risk(33:12) - AI, Labour Costs and the Flexibility Imperative(41:54) - The Case for Strategic Boldness
With UK 30-year gilt yields recently hitting 5.787%, their highest level since 1998, and political uncertainty mounting ahead of the May elections, Simon explains why patient capital and strategic boldness could unlock a significant revaluation opportunity for UK assets. From the legacy of Brexit and the defence spending pivot to the competing forces of AI-driven disinflation and geopolitical fragmentation, this conversation offers a clear-eyed roadmap for NEDs navigating an increasingly complex operating environment.
Simon French: Simon French is Managing Director, Chief Economist and Head of Research at Panmure Liberum, one of the UK's leading independent investment banks and the largest adviser to UK-quoted companies. He produces market-leading and II/Extel top-ranked economic analysis and is a member of the firm's Senior Leadership Team. Before joining Panmure Gordon in 2014, Simon spent twelve years as an economic adviser in the UK Civil Service, serving at the Department for Work and Pensions, the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. He holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Economics and Finance from Durham University and is a member of the Government Economic Service and the Society of Professional Economists. Simon has a fortnightly column in The Times and is a regular contributor to BBC TV and Radio, CNBC, Bloomberg and Sky News, making him one of the most widely recognised economic commentators in the UK.Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Questions This Episode Answers:
Should boards really pay attention to the macro environment, or just focus on their own P&L?Simon argues that even operationally excellent businesses keep being sideswiped by a series of poly-crises, from the financial crisis and Brexit to the pandemic, war and resurgent inflation. Macroeconomics need not dominate strategy, but boards that relegate the big picture face a steady succession of avoidable shocks.
Why are UK gilt yields and borrowing costs rising?Simon points to two overlapping forces. Inflation risk from the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts is lifting the term premium, while political risk ahead of the May elections, and speculation about a leadership challenge, is being priced into gilts. For companies funded off the risk-free rate, that volatility matters.
Is the weak labour market caused by AI or by rising employment costs?Simon sits firmly in the on-cost camp. He attributes the current softening mainly to layered employer national insurance, the national living wage, the employment rights bill and auto-enrolment, which have raised the cost of employing people far faster than productivity. AI's larger impact, he argues, comes later.
Does the UK remain investible for global capital?Yes, but only for patient capital, Simon says. UK assets are keenly priced at valuation discounts, creating a genuine revaluation opportunity if a supportive political and macro backdrop emerges. Investors may have to tolerate conditions worsening before they improve, but the underlying value case is real.
What should boards actually do differently at their next meeting?Simon urges two moves: engage seriously with scenario analysis of geopolitical risk and its structural legacies for supply and demand, and challenge whether the balance between caution and boldness is right, then bring the shareholder base along if a more growth-oriented strategy is needed.
The UK economy's long-term productivity challenges are not a puzzle but the predictable result of rationing energy, capital and land, and reversing even one of these constraints would materially improve the growth outlook.Corporate governance has entered a more pragmatic, post-Ukraine phase where formulaic ESG checklists are giving way to nuanced, context-specific approaches to risk and resilience.UK assets are keenly valued by almost any metric, presenting a significant revaluation opportunity for patient capital willing to weather near-term political and macro uncertainty.The current softening of the UK labour market is driven more by the overlaying of employer on-costs, national insurance, national living wage, employment rights legislation and auto-enrolment, than by AI displacement, though AI's impact will accelerate.The structural gap in risk appetite between Europe and the US, visible in everything from pension allocation to capital markets culture, is the single biggest brake on European competitiveness and long-term wealth creation.
Episode Insights:
Embed scenario analysis of geopolitical risk at board level: Move beyond short-term forecasting and build structured, recurring scenarios around the long-term implications of geopolitical fragmentation, from supply chain resilience to energy security and defence-sector exposure. Focus on structural legacies, not acute predictions.Stress-test your capital structure for a higher-rate world: With UK 10-year gilt yields above 5% and the Bank of England holding rates at 3.75%, boards should reassess assumptions around cost of capital, debt maturity profiles and the relative merits of public versus private financing. Patient, long-t...
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How should boards lead when the world refuses to stand still?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Will Geddes, Managing Director of ICP Group and one of the UK's leading authorities on security, crisis management and geopolitical risk. They explore why boards now operate inside a state of permacrisis, why traditional crisis manuals rarely leave the shelf, and how directors should make decisions with imperfect, contested and fast-moving information.
With markets now openly pricing in permacrisis as the operating environment and EY analysis showing that around 60 percent of FTSE 100 returns now hinge on geopolitical and macro forces, Will's perspective on judgement, instinct and audit trails has rarely been more timely. From a real-world story of advising a director caught in the 2008 Mumbai attacks to practical guidance on rehearsing crisis response across Zoom, Teams and the boardroom, this conversation offers NEDs and aspiring directors a clear-eyed playbook for leading when getting the call wrong is the biggest risk of all.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(04:04) - An Unconventional Path Into Specialist Security(06:06) - Defining Permacrisis for the Boardroom(08:03) - The Domino Effect of a Far-Flung Incident(11:11) - Breaking Silos and Communicating Across the Board(13:25) - Are Board Meetings Still Fit for Purpose?(15:48) - Building Horizon-Scanning Into the Agenda(18:54) - Decision-Making With Imperfect Information(23:07) - When Instinct Beats Data and Analysis(27:48) - Reputational Management(35:23) - The Next Three Things Every Board Should Do
Will Geddes: Will Geddes is the Managing Director and founder of ICP Group (International Corporate Protection), a globally recognised, niche threat-management security firm originally established in 1996 that supports clients ranging from FTSE and Fortune 100 corporations to family offices and high-profile private individuals. With more than 30 years' experience in specialist security, his work spans close protection, crisis management, kidnap and ransom, counter-terrorism, intelligence gathering, multi-jurisdictional investigations, cyber and geopolitical risk. He also founded TacticsON and is a regular international media commentator on security, terrorism and risk for outlets including the BBC, Sky News, ITN, CNN, The Telegraph and BBC Radio 4 Today. His perspective combines decades of frontline operational experience with strategic advisory work for boards making consequential decisions under pressure.Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Permacrisis means treating crisis as a continuum rather than a contingency, with seemingly minor or far-flung events capable of triggering a domino effect across global operations and reputation.Crisis manuals rarely come off the shelf when something actually happens, so what matters is whether the board has practised problem-solving and communication together using the tools they truly rely on.Decisions made with imperfect information are unavoidable, which is why a clean audit trail of what was known, by whom and when, is the single best protection for directors and the company.A board that defers decisions, fills silence with content for its own sake or refuses to admit failings damages stakeholder trust more than the underlying crisis often does.Strong crisis leadership combines humility, judgement and emotional intelligence; AI can support scenario planning at the macro level but the human element remains essential at the micro.
Treat crisis as a continuum, not an event: Build standing horizon-scanning into every board agenda alongside performance reporting. Ask each function where they foresee issues and how a single incident in one country could ripple across the business. This forces the board to spot domino effects early and to allocate attention to the right risks rather than the loudest ones.Rehearse together, across channels: Schedule regular cross-functional simulations using the tools you actually rely on day to day, including Zoom, Teams and phone. Test how the board problem-solves laterally rather than how individuals handle a dramatic hostage scenario. Doing this routinely surfaces communication gaps and trains people to lean on each other before a real crisis hits.Build a decision audit trail: Insist that all crisis-era decisions are minuted with timestamps, locations, attendees and the information available at the time, and that everyone present agrees the minutes before they are published. Pair this with a short summary of the alternatives considered and why they were rejected. This protects directors and the company if those decisions are later scrutinised by regulators, courts or the press.Manage the narrative, never lie: Equip your communications function to acknowledge press enquiries quickly, share something of genuine value rather than fill silence, and admit failings with integrity rather than allow the media to take control of the story. Brief any executive or director travelling in volatile situations on what to say, what to avoid and when to go quiet. Trust is built when stakeholders see honest, well-paced communication, not noise.Match leaders to context: Use realistic training to identify which board members lead well under duress and which contribute most in calmer waters. Create a culture where it is safe for someone to step back and let a stronger crisis leader take the chair, without that being read as a failure. Set the example as chair by openly relying on colleagues for the parts of a crisis where they are sharper than you are.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path. Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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What happens when the world your board was built to govern no longer exists?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Nik Gowing, founder of Think Unthink, former BBC World News presenter and co-author of Thinking the Unthinkable, about why boards are structurally unprepared for the scale and speed of disruption now unfolding. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the 2026 Iran conflict, Nik draws on decades of frontline reporting and direct engagement with leaders to argue that zombie orthodoxes are blinding boards to existential threats.
With the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report 2026 ranking geoeconomic confrontation as the number one global risk and UK unemployment reaching a post-pandemic high of 5.2% amid accelerating AI-driven job losses, the conversation could not be more timely. Nik introduces the Pinball Principle — the idea that crises now cascade at speeds no board can control — and calls for heretical thinking, new mind muscle and a fundamental rethink of how often and how deeply boards engage with the realities confronting them.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(04:08) - Nik Gowing: From the Berlin Wall to the Boardroom(05:59) - Are Boards Fundamentally Misreading the World?(10:51) - AI, Mass Unemployment and a Coming Societal Implosion(15:09) - The Pinball Principle: No Predictability, No Control(18:38) - Are Boards Designed to Avoid Uncomfortable Truths?(21:24) - Why Boards Are Getting Blindsided on Risk(25:58) - Cyber Attacks, War Gaming and Saturday Morning Crises(28:47) - Heretics in the Boardroom and Tearing Up the Rule Book(33:56) - The Adversity We Are Not Prepared For(37:00) - What Every Chair Should Ask at Their Next Meeting(40:26) - Embracing Uncertainty: The Positive Way Forward
Nik Gowing: Nik Gowing is the founder and director of Think Unthinkable and co-author of Thinking the Unthinkable: A New Imperative for Leadership in the Digital Age. A former main news presenter for BBC World News (1996–2014), he spent 18 years at ITN as bureau chief in Rome and Warsaw and as Diplomatic Editor for Channel Four News, collecting a BAFTA for his coverage of martial law in Poland. Nik has reported from the front lines of major global crises including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the conflicts in former Yugoslavia and the events of 9/11. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a Visiting Professor at King's College London and a former member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Geo-Economics. He has advised the President of the UN General Assembly on leadership challenges and holds honorary doctorates from Exeter and Bristol universities. Most recently, he moderated high-level plenary sessions at the 2026 Villars Ocean Forum on planetary tipping points.Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Boards are constrained by zombie orthodoxes — inherited assumptions about stability and predictability that no longer reflect reality — and what qualified leaders for their roles may now disqualify them from understanding the scale of disruption ahead.The Pinball Principle captures how crises now cascade in unpredictable directions at speeds that outpace traditional governance structures, leaving boards feeling powerless but unable to admit it.Risk and resilience registers are being artificially constrained, with some chief risk officers told to cap the number of risks they report, leaving existential threats outside the boundary fence.Boards need heretics — people sanctioned to challenge consensus and think beyond established orthodoxies — valued as visionaries rather than treated as problems to be disposed of.AI-driven disruption threatens a societal implosion, with mass unemployment, mortgage crises and a fundamental breakdown in the social contract happening not in decades but in months.
Build new mind muscle at board level: Challenge every board member to identify at least three assumptions they hold about the business environment that may no longer be valid. Create structured exercises that force directors to confront scenarios they instinctively resist, building the cognitive flexibility Gowing calls new mind muscle.Tear up the quarterly meeting model: If your board meets once a quarter for two hours, it is operating on a cadence designed for a stable world. Increase the frequency of board engagement, even if virtually, to match the speed at which geopolitical, technological and societal risks are now materialising.Uncap your risk register: Audit whether your risk and resilience framework is artificially constrained. If your chief risk officer can only list 20 risks, you are choosing blindness over preparedness. Expand the register to include geopolitical, AI-driven and societal risks that sit beyond the traditional boundary fence.Appoint and protect your heretics: Identify individuals within the board and the C-suite who are willing to voice uncomfortable truths and sanction them to do so. Create a culture where challenging orthodoxy is rewarded, not career-ending, and where scenario planning includes events the organisation considers impossible.Stress-test for Saturday morning crises: Model your response to a major disruption that lands outside business hours — a cyber attack, a geopolitical shock, a supply chain collapse. If your organisation cannot convene and act within hours, not days, you are not prepared for the speed of the current threat environment.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path. Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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What do investors actually look for when they sit down with a board? And has stewardship lost its way in a sea of tick boxes and league tables?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Kimberley Lewis, Head of Active Ownership at Schroders, one of the world's largest global asset managers. Kimberley leads Schroders' global stewardship strategy and works directly with chairs, CEOs and NEDs on governance, climate, human capital and geopolitics.
They explore why quality stewardship should feel like a partnership rather than a compliance exercise and why boards need more courage to explain rather than simply comply. The conversation covers the growing wave of shareholder activism in Europe, with a 44% year-on-year surge in UK companies targeted by activists in 2025, the impact of the US ESG backlash on UK engagement, and why Kimberley believes companies that double down on their principles will ultimately be vindicated.
From board composition and NED stock ownership to the balance between curiosity and technical expertise, this is a practical guide to what good governance looks like from the investor's chair.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(03:30) - From Law to Active Ownership: Kimberley's Career Path(05:01) - What Good Stewardship Really Looks Like(08:31) - Navigating the US ESG Backlash from London(13:01) - The Rise of Shareholder Activism in Europe(15:29) - Influence without Authority: Credibility in the Boardroom(18:02) - Stewardship in 2026 and the Updated Blueprint(21:24) - How Boards Handle Risk across Competing Themes(24:33) - Should NEDs Own Stock?(28:15) - Diversity, Refreshment and the Red Herring Debate(32:51) - When Stewardship Becomes Confused with Compliance(34:40) - The Future Board: Skills, Curiosity and JudgementKimberley Lewis: Kimberley Lewis is the Head of Active Ownership at Schroders, one of the world's largest global asset managers. She leads the firm's global stewardship strategy, overseeing how Schroders engages with boards and executive teams across listed and private markets on issues including corporate governance, climate change, human rights, human capital and geopolitics. A former lawyer in the United States, Kimberley pivoted into corporate responsibility roles at AstraZeneca and Pfizer before moving into investment stewardship, initially covering North American companies at a boutique ESG-integrated firm. She holds an MBA from London Business School and is a member of the International Corporate Governance Network.
Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Resources & Links:
Schroders 2026 Engagement BlueprintThe State of Stewardship Tulchan ReportIA Stewardship Working Group ReportUK Stewardship Code 2026
Quality stewardship is a collaborative, research-driven partnership between investors and boards, not a tick-box compliance exercise driven by league tables or voting records.The US ESG backlash is making stewardship harder but more important: companies are responding in very different ways, and those that double down on their principles are likely to be vindicated in the long run.Shareholder activism is surging in Europe and the UK, and boards should treat large, long-term shareholders as trusted partners and engage with activist concerns early rather than waiting for a crisis.The UK corporate governance framework needs more courage in the "explain" of "comply or explain": private conversations reveal boards often know what they should do but fear the headlines.Assessing true board quality remains one of the biggest unsolved challenges in stewardship: composition metrics and skills matrices are imperfect proxies for the judgement, curiosity and culture that really matter.
Episode Insights:
Treat your largest shareholders as strategic partners: Proactively reach out to your long-term institutional investors for candid conversations about governance, strategy and risk. These investors often have a broader market perspective and a genuine shared interest in long-term value creation. Use them as a sounding board before challenges escalate into activist campaigns.Embrace the "explain" in comply or explain: Resist the temptation to default to compliance for an easy life. If a departure from the corporate governance code serves the company's long-term interests, invest the time to articulate a clear, evidence-based rationale. The FRC has explicitly stated that thoughtful, well-reasoned explanation is not weak governance.Rethink how you assess board composition: Move beyond rigid checklists of skills and experience. Consider whether the board collectively has the intellectual curiosity, risk appetite and constructive challenge needed to navigate complex, overlapping issues such as AI, geopolitics and climate transition. Look at the board holistically rather than applying strict rules to individual metrics.Align NED incentives with long-term value: Consider whether NED remuneration structures encourage genuine alignment with shareholders. The FRC's updated guidance now permits share-based arrangements for NEDs, provided they are not performance-linked. Explore whether personal shareholdings could strengthen commitment and accountability on your board.Prepare for and engage with activism constructively: Monitor early signals of activist interest, including rising AGM dissent percentages and new register entries. Engage with activist concerns directly and early, treating them as a source of market intelligence rather than a threat. Companies that listen and adapt before campaigns go public are far better positioned than those that react defensively.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board d... -
How do you tell whether a board is genuinely effective, rather than simply compliant and well-presented?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with James Beasley, Head of Board Advisory (EMEA) at Nasdaq Governance Solutions, about what differentiates high-performing boards and directors from the rest.
They unpack why governance must be pragmatic and strategy-led, why skills matrices should reflect an organisation’s evolving needs, and why many boards still spend too much time on management presentations and not enough time on real discussion and independent challenge. James also explains what makes board evaluations useful, why tailored questions matter, and why boards must follow through with action rather than stopping at reflection.
The conversation lands in the hot zones now dominating board agendas: AI, cyber and geopolitics. That context matters, but the principles do not change. Recent governance research underlines the pressure boards feel to modernise: for example, Nasdaq’s Global Governance Pulse survey found 35% of respondents emphasise AI and machine learning as board composition priorities, alongside cybersecurity and data privacy.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(01:58) - What Board Advisory Actually Does(03:03) - James’s Route Into Governance and Board Effectiveness(05:51) - Why Governance Must Be Pragmatic and Contextual(08:05) - Regulation Versus Culture in Board Behaviour(13:11) - Common Misconceptions About What Boards Do(17:12) - Why Board Work Feels Broader in a More Complex World(21:03) - Inside the Global Governance Pulse and Board Priorities(23:54) - Why Many Evaluations Leave Value on the Table(27:38) - Skills Matrices, Succession and Refreshing the Board(32:00) - AI, Geopolitics and Modern Risk Oversight(39:08) - How Prospective Directors Should Assess a Board RoleJames Beasley: James leads board advisory across EMEA and India for Nasdaq, specialising in board evaluations and related governance advisory support to some of the world’s most exciting and dynamic companies. He also serves as a member of the Insights Council for Nasdaq’s Centre for Board Excellence; shaping its strategy, contributing insights and working with other council members to identify and address important board governance matters.
He holds an MSc in Global Governance and Ethics from University College London (UCL), having majored in global business regulation and international political economy. He is also an alumnus of the Sustainability Leadership Programme at Imperial College Business School. James is a regular contributor to governance thought leadership publications and to industry events and has been published by the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung amongst other leading publications. He is a member of the Society for Corporate Governance.
Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Good governance is pragmatic. Boards should avoid one-size-fits-all templates and tailor governance and composition to strategy, business model and context.Skills matrices work best when they start with forward strategy, not benchmarking peers. Board needs should evolve as strategy evolves.Many boards over-invest in presentation and under-invest in discussion. Decision quality improves when directors probe, challenge and test assumptions.Board evaluations create value when they adapt year on year and lead to follow-through actions, not just reflection.AI and geopolitics raise the bar for board oversight. Boards must upskill and set guardrails without delegating judgement to tools or experts.Action Points:
Rebalance board time towards discussion: Review agendas and board packs to reduce passive presentation time. Set expectations that key topics must include structured debate and independent challenge. Measure this shift by tracking how much meeting time is spent on decisions and forward-looking risks.Make your skills matrix strategy-led: Start with the organisation’s three-to-five-year strategic plan, then define the board capabilities required to oversee it. Refresh the matrix annually to reflect acquisitions, divestments, market exits or new growth bets. Use it to guide succession planning rather than generic peer comparison.Upgrade board evaluations beyond a standard questionnaire: Keep a core framework for continuity, but tailor questions to the year’s real priorities. Combine quantitative feedback with qualitative interviews to surface what directors will not write down. Convert findings into an explicit action plan with owners and deadlines.Close capability gaps without defaulting to new appointments: For topics like AI, cyber and geopolitics, decide whether the right response is recruitment, structured learning, better management reporting, or all three. Bring in external experts to brief the board, but retain board-level accountability for judgement. Ask management for decision-ready insight rather than general updates.Treat onboarding as a long runway, not a one-week pack: Tailor onboarding to the role and committee responsibilities. Set up meetings with key leaders and relevant assurance partners (for example internal audit and external audit for audit committee members). Build in follow-ups across the first few months to turn onboarding into continuous development.
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path. Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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How do you close the gap between the leader you intend to be and the impact you actually have in the boardroom?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with business psychologist and executive coach Harriet Heneghan about what really drives boardroom behaviour, why feedback often fails to create change, and how coaching can help board members, chairs, and senior teams perform at their best under pressure.
Harriet explains why people judge others by behaviour but judge themselves by intention, and how this mismatch fuels misunderstanding, defensiveness, and dysfunctional dynamics at the top. They explore the psychological patterns that block self-awareness, the role of chair leadership in creating better board culture, and practical techniques for reading the room without reverting to executive authority.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(04:09) - Coaching Boards vs Coaching Executives(05:45) - Behaviour Change and Communication as a Skill(07:23) - Feedback, Self-Awareness, and Personality Profiles(08:29) - Why Boards Become Dysfunctional(09:44) - Intention Matching Impact in Leadership(11:00) - Closing the Gap Between Intent and Impact(13:02) - Video Playback as Immediate Feedback(15:22) - The Shift From C-Suite Authority to Boardroom Influence(17:03) - Psychology Patterns That Block Feedback and Change(19:02) - The Chair as Conductor and Coach
Harriet Heneghan: Harriet Heneghan is a business psychologist and executive coach at Sainty Hird & Partners. She began her career in Investment Banking at UBS before moving into communications and leadership coaching. Harriet holds an MSc in Occupational Psychology from Birkbeck, University of London and is accredited in Hogan Assessments and EQ-i 2.0 / EQ-i 360. She works with board directors, chairs, and senior leadership teams to strengthen self-awareness, influence, and group dynamics, particularly during periods of transition, complexity, and heightened accountability.Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Boardroom conflict often comes from a gap between intention and impact, and the habit of judging others by behaviour while judging yourself by intention.Coaching works best when the individual genuinely wants change, not when it is imposed from above.The chair is a conductor, using questions and structure to bring out better contributions and reduce unhelpful power dynamics.Psychological safety and assertiveness are linked: effective board members speak up clearly without dominating the room.Video playback and objective tools like Hogan can accelerate self-awareness by showing leaders how they actually come across.
Separate intention from impact: When feedback stings, pause to ask what behaviour others experienced rather than defending intent. Summarise back what you heard and test it with a second example before deciding what to change. Treat this as data, not a verdict on character.Build a feedback habit that creates themes: Do not overreact to one-off comments or one awkward meeting. Look for repeating patterns across multiple people and situations. If you can, validate it with structured tools or peer feedback before setting a development goal.Use coaching questions in the boardroom: Replace quick judgements with questions such as What is driving this, and what outcome do we want? This lowers defensiveness and pulls the conversation back towards decision quality. Chairs can model this to stabilise board dynamics.Practise assertive contribution: Prepare one or two clear interventions before meetings and deliver them briefly. Watch the room for signals, then stop talking and invite others in. If you feel ignored, follow up one-to-one rather than escalating in-session.Create space to think before reacting: When the room tips into fight-or-flight, call a short break or pause the decision. Use the time to clarify what is actually being decided and what information is missing. Better pace often produces faster progress.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path. Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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Why has founder CEO succession become one of the most stressful and consequential decisions a board can make?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Evgeny Shadchnev, founder of Makers, author of Startup CEO Succession and coach to founder CEOs, about how to navigate leadership transitions when the stakes feel deeply personal and financially critical. Drawing on his own journey from founder CEO to coach, Evgeny explains the crucial shift from building a product to building the company that builds the product, and why behaviours that work in a five‑person team become harmful in a seventy‑person organisation.
Against a backdrop of rising CEO turnover even at high‑performing companies, as boards lean into more proactive succession planning rather than waiting for crisis, Evgeny and Ralph explore how boards can spot early warning signs, support founders through burnout and identity shifts, and create a safe, trusted space for honest conversations. From job specs that look ahead to where the “puck” is going, to the pitfalls of rushed transitions and lateral moves into chair roles, this conversation offers a practical roadmap for founders, investors and aspiring NEDs.
Evgeny Shadchnev: Evgeny Shadchnev is the founder and former CEO of Makers, one of the UK’s leading coding bootcamps, where he helped tackle the tech talent shortage by training complete beginners to become software developers. After leading Makers through its growth and his own CEO succession, he became a certified professional coach specialising in founder CEO transitions, working with entrepreneurs and boards on the personal and organisational challenges of leadership change. He is the author of Startup CEO Succession: A Founder’s Guide to Leadership Transition and hosts the Startup CEO Succession podcast, where he interviews founders, successor CEOs and investors about real‑world succession stories.
Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
The founder’s job is to keep the company alive and find product–market fit, while the CEO’s job is to build and lead the organisation that builds the product.Behaviours that are life‑saving in a five‑person startup, such as having an opinion on everything, often become micromanagement and a blocker once the team scales.Early, ongoing conversations about the CEO job spec, the company’s future needs and the founder’s preferences reduce the risk of crisis‑driven, rushed transitions.Trust and informal dialogue between founder, chair and investors are as important as formal board meetings in handling succession with maturity and respect.Lateral moves (for example, founder to chair or functional role) only work when the founder is genuinely qualified for the role and willing to get out of the new CEO’s way.
Clarify the founder vs CEO job over time: Schedule regular discussions between the founder, chair and board about how the CEO role is evolving over the next two to three years. Map what the company will need from its leader, compare that with the founder’s strengths and preferences, and document a living CEO job spec that is revisited annually rather than only in moments of crisis.Normalise early succession conversations: Build CEO succession into the board’s “good hygiene” agenda, alongside cash flow and risk. Treat it as an ongoing strategic topic, not a signal of imminent removal, so that founders can talk openly about burnout, changing life priorities and future roles without fear that one conversation will trigger an immediate process.Invest in trusted relationships on the board: Ensure there is at least one board member – ideally the chair – with whom the founder has a deep, trusted relationship. Encourage informal check‑ins between meetings so concerns about fit, performance or wellbeing surface early and privately, rather than erupting in formal sessions where they are harder to handle constructively.Design the succession process as a shared project: When a CEO transition becomes likely, treat it as a collaboration between outgoing CEO and board. Co‑create the forward‑looking job description, agree who leads the search, and define how the current CEO will contribute without over‑controlling the process. This shared ownership reduces defensiveness and keeps the company’s long‑term interests at the centre.Plan the founder’s next chapter deliberately: Support the founder in clarifying what comes after the CEO role before any transition is finalised. Encourage them to take time to rest, reflect and explore options such as coaching, new ventures, advisory roles or different executive positions, rather than grabbing the first opportunity. A clear, attractive “next step” makes it easier for the founder to let go and for the board to communicate a confident story to investors.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path.
Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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What does a high‑value board really look like in a world of scandals, regulation fatigue, and infinite agendas?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Board Intelligence’s Megan Pantelides to unpack the mindset, skills, and information boards need to move from box‑ticking to real strategic impact. They explore why critical thinking, curiosity and humility separate effective directors from “back‑seat drivers”, and why great governance is really the discipline of a well‑run company – and economy.
Megan shares insights from Board Intelligence’s Board Value Index, where nearly half of directors felt their boards were not adding enough value, and explains how better board packs, sharper questions and continuous development can turn that around. She also reflects on live debates about the UK Corporate Governance Code’s comply‑or‑explain regime, including the FRC’s recent push for more meaningful explanations in its latest Annual Review of Corporate Governance Reporting and the updated guidance on NED remuneration, which gives boards new flexibility while preserving independence.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(03:00) - From Search to Board Intelligence(04:18) - How Board Intelligence Evolved Its Board Effectiveness Offer(06:30) - What Good Board Packs Look Like Across Sectors(10:30) - Using Board Papers for Due Diligence on a New Board Role(12:45) - Higgs Review, Scandals and the Changing Role of NEDs(15:32) - Comply or Explain, Proxies and the Reality of Governance Codes(18:13) - Is It Worth Being on a Board? Risk, Reward and Scrutiny(21:03) - Certification, Competence and the Mindset of Effective Directors(23:31) - Critical Thinking as a Daily Discipline for Boards and Management(33:36) - The Board Value Index and How Boards Can Add More Value
From due diligence tips for aspiring NEDs to practical ways to embed critical thinking across an organisation, this conversation offers a grounded roadmap for anyone serious about a long‑term board career.Megan Pantelides: Megan Pantelides is a Senior Director at Board Intelligence, Europe’s largest board technology and advisory firm, where she leads on research, content, communications and brand development. She writes extensively on board effectiveness, corporate governance, AI, leadership and organisational culture, with work featured in outlets such as the Financial Times, Sunday Times and Governance and Compliance. Drawing on senior roles in executive search and board advisory, Megan helps boards and leadership teams improve the quality of their information, decision‑making and oversight, and has contributed to major initiatives including the Institute of Directors’ 2025 Commission on the evolving role of non‑executive directors.
Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Board effectiveness is less about heroic individuals and more about disciplined processes, high‑quality information and a culture that welcomes challenge.Critical thinking in the boardroom starts with better questions, not bigger packs: directors need decision‑ready insight, not kitchen‑sink reporting.The best boards blend a common framework – such as Board Intelligence’s question‑driven insight approach – with tailored, sector‑specific nuance.Certification and formal training can signal commitment and humility, but they only add real value when paired with deep experience and ongoing curiosity.Comply‑or‑explain still works when companies use it honestly: recent FRC reviews show that clearer, context‑rich explanations are becoming a marker of good governance rather than a sign of weakness, as highlighted in the FRC’s Annual Review of Corporate Governance Reporting and related analysis in The Accountant.
Clarify your board value proposition: Define in plain language what you uniquely bring to a board beyond your executive CV. Distil your sector expertise, functional strengths and mindset (for example, growth versus risk focus) into a coherent narrative you can evidence with real situations and outcomes.Use board packs as a due diligence tool: When considering a role, ask for several years of board papers and read them for signals about focus, candour and alignment with strategy. Look for whether the board spends its time on forward‑looking value creation versus backward‑looking performance monitoring, and use this to shape your questions in interview.Build daily critical‑thinking rituals: Treat recurring reports, updates and meetings as chances to think, not just to transmit information. Before writing or reading a paper, list the core questions that really matter – what is going well, what is not, what keeps management awake at night, and what support is needed from the board – and structure your input around them.Invest in professional development with humility: If you are serious about a NED career, pursue targeted training, certification or board‑readiness programmes that deepen your understanding of the role. Use these not as badges, but as a way to challenge assumptions, practise difficult conversations and refine how you navigate the line between support and oversight.Engage with the governance debate, not just the rules: Stay current on developments such as the updated UK Corporate Governance Code and guidance and the FRC’s guidance on NED remuneration, which emphasise flexibility, meaningful explanations and long‑term alignment. Use this context to frame questions about how any board you join interprets comply‑or‑explain, risk, incentives and culture.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted b... -
How should boards really think about cyber and AI when every organisation feels under siege?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Danny Lopez, CEO of Glasswall and experienced NED, about why cybersecurity is now the defining risk of our time – and why boards must stop treating it as a narrow IT issue. They explore how to reframe cyber as core to trust, reputation and licence to operate, and why good NEDs do not need to code but do need sharp, strategic questions and real intellectual curiosity.
Drawing on recent data showing that over 8 in 10 UK businesses plan to increase cyber budgets next year and that AI‑driven threats are a top concern for European security professionals, Danny explains how boards can move beyond tick‑box compliance into meaningful scenario planning, resilience and culture change. From identifying the “crown jewels” in your data estate to avoiding naive uses of open AI tools for board papers, this conversation offers a practical roadmap for NEDs who want to stay ahead of AI‑enabled threats without losing sight of long‑term growth.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(04:50) - A Non‑Linear Career of Risk and Growth(06:04) - Why Cybersecurity Is the Defining Risk of Our Time(07:06) - Inside Glasswall and File‑Based Threat Protection(08:15) - Breaking into the US Intelligence and Defence Market(10:17) - Cyber on the Board Agenda: Curiosity over Fear(13:25) - AI, Cyber and Risk: Enabler Not Just Threat(15:05) - Crown Jewels, Risk Registers and Better Board Questions(17:03) - Resilience, War‑Gaming and Culture Under Stress(20:28) - A New Geopolitical Paradigm and Swan‑Stacking Boards(24:01) - AI as Burglar and Alarm System in Cybersecurity(31:37) - AI, Governance and Avoiding Groupthink in the BoardroomDanny Lopez: Danny Lopez is the CEO of Glasswall, an award‑winning cybersecurity company that protects organisations against sophisticated file‑based threats using zero‑trust Content Disarm and Reconstruction technology. A former British Consul General in New York and Director‑General for trade and investment across North America, he previously served as the inaugural CEO of London & Partners and held senior international banking roles at Barclays in London, New York, Miami and Mumbai. Danny is a non‑executive director at Innovate Finance and Aquis Stock Exchange and a pro bono adviser to the City of London Corporation, giving him a unique vantage point at the intersection of geopolitics, finance, technology and board‑level risk.
Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Cybersecurity is not a narrow IT issue but a core risk‑management and trust issue that underpins an organisation’s licence to operate.Boards do not need deep technical skills but must be intellectually curious, ask incisive questions and insist that cyber information is presented in plain, decision‑ready language.Identifying and protecting the “crown jewels” in your digital landscape allows boards to focus spend and oversight where it matters most instead of spreading security budgets thinly across everything.Practical scenario planning and war‑gaming around doomsday‑style incidents build real organisational resilience, clarify roles in a crisis and strengthen culture.AI has become both burglar and alarm system: it dramatically scales attackers’ capabilities, but, when governed well, also enables faster anomaly detection, pattern recognition and defence.
Define your crown jewels: Map the 5–7% of your data and digital estate without which the organisation would be on its knees. Ask management to quantify the impact of losing those assets and to show how cyber spend is weighted towards protecting them, not just evenly distributed across every system.Make scenario planning non‑negotiable: Schedule regular, realistic cyber incident simulations at board level. Treat them as live rehearsals, not compliance exercises, so everyone understands their role, communications pathways and decision thresholds when a major breach or AI‑enabled attack hits.Reframe cyber as culture, not just controls: Challenge management on how cyber, AI and data risk feature in training, incentives and everyday behaviours. Look for evidence that employees feel safe to report mistakes quickly and that near‑misses are treated as learning opportunities rather than reasons for blame.Set guardrails for AI use in governance: Ask security teams to define clear principles for how AI tools can and cannot be used with board and management information. Ensure there is guidance on sensitive data, model choice and auditability so that efficiency never trumps confidentiality and accountability.Invest in your own AI and cyber literacy: Commit to ongoing learning about AI‑enabled threats and defences, using curated case studies, external briefings and trusted resources. The goal is not to become an engineer but to be confident enough to challenge, probe and connect cyber discussions back to strategy, reputation and capital allocation.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path.
Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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What does it really take to thrive in the boardroom rather than simply occupy a seat at the table?
In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Rob Senior, former worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi and now a plural non-executive, investor and advisor. Drawing on a career that spans founding and selling Fallon, leading global creative campaigns, and serving on PLC, private, scale-up and academic boards, Rob offers a candid look at how executives should rethink their move into NED roles.
He unpacks the nuanced relationship between boards and CEOs, why the Chair–CEO axis is critical, and how to think clearly about stakeholder trade-offs and personal risk. Rob also explores board composition, fit and personal brand, arguing that “hope is not a strategy” when choosing roles or filling seats. As boards grapple with disruption and new responsibilities, directors are under pressure to raise their game: recent research shows that nearly all boards are experimenting with AI, yet only around one in five has formal AI ethics or risk policies in place. This timely conversation challenges aspiring NEDs to be intellectually honest about their value, motivations and impact.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(01:27) - Robert Senior's Career Journey(04:32) - Insights on Board Dynamics(10:33) - CEO and Board Relationships(14:04) - The Role of a NED(23:48) - Branding and Board Decisions(36:58) - Challenges and Opportunities in Modern Boards
Rob Senior: Rob Senior is a non-executive director, investor and advisor known for his leadership in advertising, branding and venture capital. Formerly worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, he began his career at TBWA before co-founding Fallon London, helping to create some of the world’s most awarded campaigns for brands including Cadbury, Sony, T-Mobile, Toyota and Visa. Rob later led Saatchi & Saatchi’s London, European and global businesses, championing a “nothing is impossible” culture that combined creative excellence with commercial impact. Since stepping away from full-time executive roles, he has built a plural portfolio spanning PLC, private, scale-up and academic boards.As a partner at Red Rice Ventures, he now backs founder-led consumer and digital businesses, supporting entrepreneurs on brand, growth strategy and leadership. His experience of setting up, buying, selling and closing companies, coupled with his focus on authentic personal branding and board dynamics, underpins a distinctive perspective on where NEDs can genuinely add value.
Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Why aspiring NEDs must start with intellectual honesty about their “superpower”, ideal board environments and where they are least effective.How the best board members balance accountability without operational responsibility, using “gentle persuasion” and relationships rather than blunt direction.Why fit between individual, board culture and mission often matters more than prestige, sector or headline remuneration.How branding and clarity of purpose help boards distinguish between strategic and purely tactical revenue, shaping better long-term decisions.The behaviours that differentiate high-impact directors – persistent, well-informed questioning and thoughtful preparation – from those who simply “go through the motions”.
Clarify your boardroom value proposition: Define your core strengths, the contexts where you perform at your best, and situations where you tend to add little value. Turn this into a simple personal “board brief” you can test against any new opportunity, so you only pursue roles where you can be genuinely additive rather than merely decorative.Do rigorous due diligence on every board role: Before accepting a seat, look beyond the brand name and ask hard questions about the organisation’s purpose, strategy, culture and current challenges. Speak to multiple stakeholders, review recent board decisions and consider how you would feel being publicly associated with those choices in five years’ time.Invest in the Chair–NED–CEO relationship: Treat the Chair–CEO axis and broader board dynamics as core to your effectiveness, not background context. Schedule time outside formal meetings to build trust, understand perspectives and align on the organisation’s “North Star”, so difficult conversations can happen quickly and without unnecessary collateral damage.Be deliberate about risk, not reactive: Map out where you personally sit on the risk spectrum and how that aligns with the board’s appetite and the company’s stage of growth. In discussions on strategy, capital allocation or brand decisions, explicitly separate short-term pain from long-term gain, and be clear when you are taking tactical revenue versus building strategic value.Commit to continuous learning as a director: Use each board as a learning environment rather than a static credential. After meetings, reflect on where your questions changed the discussion, where they fell flat, and what information you lacked. Build habits of independent research between meetings so you can return with data and perspectives that materially shift decisions.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path.
Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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Is your board truly equipped for effective governance, or are you just checking a box?
In this insightful episode, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Erika Eliasson-Norris, Founder & CEO of Beyond Governance and author of The Secret Diary of a Company Secretary, to lift the lid on the guarded realities of boardroom life.
Erika, who also serves as the Governance Assessor to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, argues that corporate failure rarely stems from a single event; instead, it's rooted in a culture that undermines governance structures. The conversation explores the pivotal role of the Company Secretary as the quiet conscience of the company, moving beyond a simple legal function to become an editor of focus for the board.
They also discuss emerging challenges, like AI in the boardroom, and the need for boards to bridge the 'Agility Gap'—the tendency to be structured for caution over adaptability.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(01:53) - The Secret Diary of a Company Secretary(05:50) - Beyond Governance and CoSec on Demand(10:38) - Evolution of Corporate Governance(12:19) - Challenges in Governance(20:04) - Board Meetings: Best Practices(27:18) - Leadership Lessons and Resilience(33:00) - AI in the Boardroom(38:35) - Career Advice and Final ThoughtsErika Eliasson-Norris: Founder and CEO of Beyond Governance, a consultancy that helps organisations use governance as a strategic advantage. She is the youngest-ever governance executive appointed to a FTSE 250 company, a recognised 'Governance Professional of the Year', and serves as the sole Governance Assessor for the Post Office Horizon IT Public Inquiry. She is also the author of The Secret Diary of a Company Secretary.
Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Governance has evolved from a box-ticking exercise to encompass culture, behaviours, ESG integration, and a focus on cognitive diversity.The root cause of any corporate scandal or collapse can typically be traced back to the organisation's corporate governance.A Company Secretary's value is in being an "editor of focus," ensuring papers link data to strategy and risk, rather than simply being a scribe of the meeting.The danger of the 'Agility Gap': many boards are structured for caution, but what they truly need is the adaptability to make timely, informed decisions.AI presents an opportunity for faster data analysis, but boards must mitigate the risks of embedded bias and over-reliance that could undermine independent human judgment.
Reframe the Company Secretary Role: Stop viewing the Company Secretary solely as a legal or compliance function. Recognise them as an essential strategic advisor with a broad, objective view across the entire organisation, positioned to ask the hard questions and hold the 'red lines'. Engage with them proactively for advice on board dynamics and reporting focus, not just process.Audit Your Board Pack for Focus: Assess your board meeting papers to ensure they focus on impact and link data directly to strategy and risk, not just operational detail. Work with your governance professional to cut noise and consolidate information so directors focus on key decisions, risk, and opportunities lost.Challenge Groupthink and Complacency: Actively foster a board culture where individuals feel comfortable speaking "truth to power" and raising problems without fear. Understand that corporate failure is often the result of small, unchecked oversights and poor decisions left unchallenged, which demands vigilance and cognitive diversity.Address the 'Agility Gap': Review your governance frameworks to ensure they support timely, informed decision-making, rather than creating unnecessary bureaucracy structured only for caution. Erika suggests scenario planning to work out what to do before things go wrong, allowing for faster, more confident action when they do.Understand the AI Risk Balance: Recognise AI's potential for efficiency and faster insights, but define a clear set of principles around its use to ensure transparency and accountability. Guard against over-reliance, which can lead to a decline in independent judgment and introduce embedded bias into key decisions.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path.
Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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Is the UK public market truly a dinosaur, or is it on the cusp of a major renewal?
In this essential episode for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors, host Ralph Grayson is joined by Charles Hall, Head of Research at Peel Hunt. Charles, a leading voice in the market reform debate, delivers a candid and incisive analysis of the forces shaping UK capital markets, critiquing the "erosion of public listings" and the over-reliance on private capital.
He argues passionately that public markets are a "public good" that pay more tax and offer "permanent capital". They dissect structural challenges like the growth of passive investment and explore the crucial policy changes needed in pension fund allocation to keep successful, high-growth UK companies listing at home. Despite a recent "shift in sentiment" and strengthening IPO pipeline for 2026, Charles warns the UK cannot be complacent in the fight to retain its leading businesses, noting the "fundamental flaw" that sees the UK export over £1 billion every year in pension capital overseas.
This is a must-listen for board members seeking strategic insights on investor engagement, valuations, and the UK’s global competitive position.
(00:00) - Welcome to The Boardroom Path(02:55) - Charles Hall's Career Journey(05:06) - Engaging with Investors(08:42) - Peel Hunt's IPO and Corporate Services(11:19) - Global Macro Outlook and UK Strategy(14:03) - Challenges in UK Public Markets(18:14) - The Importance of UK Equity Markets(24:28) - Innovations and Future of UK Capital Markets(35:52) - The Role of Pension Funds and Scale-Up Capital(48:30) - Positivity in the UK Public MarketCharles Hall: Head of Research and an experienced Consumer sector analyst at Peel Hunt, one of the UK's leading investment banks. He leads an operation covering over 400 UK small and mid-cap stocks and is a widely recognised advocate for the revitalisation of UK capital markets and pension reform. He was the top-ranked analyst in the UK Mid & Small cap market overall in the 2021 Institutional Investor (Extel) Survey for the fifth consecutive year.
Ralph Grayson: Ralph Grayson is a Partner in the Board Practice at Sainty Hird & Partners, bringing extensive experience in board-level recruitment, assessment, and advisory services. With a deep understanding of the corporate governance landscape, Ralph specialises in guiding senior executives as they transition into impactful boardroom careers. His thoughtful approach, combined with a passion for developing effective leaders, enables him to facilitate insightful conversations that equip aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors with the tools they need to succeed. Through The Boardroom Path, Ralph leverages his extensive professional network and expertise to empower listeners on their journey into the boardroom.
Episode Insights:
Analysts possess a deep, privileged pool of knowledge on strategy, competitors, and disruptive technology that boards should tap into, going beyond mere share price maximisation.Public markets are fundamentally beneficial for the UK economy because listed companies pay more tax (corporation tax, dividends, stamp duty) and are held to a high degree of honesty and accountability.A major structural problem is the extensive export of domestic capital via DC pension schemes, which invest predominantly in global, often US-listed, equities, starving growing UK companies of scale-up capital.Listing in the US is "definitively not nirvana"; for most UK companies, they would be "minnows" and would not automatically gain a higher valuation or access to passive fund flows.Public listing provides "permanent capital" that never has to be refinanced or repaid, enabling companies to take a long-term view unmatched by the cyclical nature of private markets.
Re-evaluate Investor Engagement Strategy: Boards should view their analysts and investors as critical partners who provide robust challenge and market-wide strategic insights, not just capital sources. Schedule formal sessions to tap into analyst knowledge on sector trends and competitor strategy beyond quarterly results.Advocate for Domestic Capital: Engage with policymakers on the urgent need for pension reform that incentivises UK pension funds to allocate more capital domestically, as currently DC schemes allocate less than 5% to UK equities. Highlight why investing in UK growth companies is a "win-win-win" for pensioners, funds, and the UK economy.Scrutinise Private Takeover Offers: When faced with an offer, look beyond the immediate valuation to the underlying cause: poor capital flows and market sentiment. Understand that reversing capital outflows would quickly improve domestic valuations and reduce the perceived "bargain" available to overseas acquirers.Embrace Transparency for Trust: Recognise that the constant scrutiny and glare of publicity from analysts and journalists is a key strength of public markets, creating a "high degree of honesty". View this transparency as a vital governance strength that prevents systemic issues seen in less-scrutinised private entities, such as Thames Water.Foster Entrepreneurial Culture: Work to create a culture where entrepreneurs feel it is a "privilege to be listed in the UK". Actively encourage successful founders to reinvest their wealth domestically in the next generation of UK growth companies, fostering a 'go again' mindset.
Action Points:
The Boardroom Path is the essential podcast for aspiring and newly appointed Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) navigating the journey from executive leadership to the boardroom. Hosted by Ralph Grayson, partner at Sainty Hird & Partners, each episode offers insightful conversations with industry leaders, seasoned board directors, and governance experts. Our guests share practical strategies, valuable perspectives, and actionable advice on how to effectively transition into board roles, maximise your impact, and build a rewarding NED career.Subscribe now, and take your first confident step along The Boardroom Path.
Learn more about Sainty Hird & Partners at saintyhird.com.
The Boardroom Path is produced by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford, UK.
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