Are You Board Ready?
Interested in joining a board? And if so, are you prepared? Unless you have participated on a corporate or nonprofit board of directors, it is unlikely that you have a complete understanding of a board member’s responsibilities. The Directors Academy at Drexel LeBow’s Center of Corporate Governance can help with that.
Offered in collaboration with the College’s Corporate and Executive Education, the new program offers aspiring and current board members the tools to prepare themselves for the boardroom.
“It’s tremendously challenging to be a board director in today’s environment,” says Ralph Walkling, executive director of the CCG and the Christopher and Mary Stratakis Professor in Corporate Governance and Accountability at LeBow. “It’s important to understand the responsibilities. If you are interested, you need to prepare yourself as best as possible.”
While there are many aspects to joining a board perhaps none is as critical as being able to understand its financial aspects, according to Walking. “Reading corporate financial statements accurately is crucial.”
In addition to a corporate finance overview, the day-and-a-half-program brings together leading experts from various committees in compensation, audit and governance, who discuss their various areas of expertise and the challenges they face in today’s transparent corporate climate. The program complements the others offered through the Center such as Evidence and Perspectives, a quarterly breakfast series featuring panel discussion on emerging trends in governance; and Directors Dialogue, an annual one-day forum that offers corporate directors an opportunity to discuss research and the implications on effective board leadership.
The first session of the Directors Academy was held in March bringing together leading academics and executives for intensive sessions in corporate governance. Aspiring and current board members were in attendance.
Here is what some of them had to say about their experience in the Directors Academy.
