Fiona Hathorn is CEO and co-founder of Women on Boards UK, now known as WB Directors and recently acquired by Nurole. Listen to the conversation to hear about: What motivated Fiona to help more women get board roles (1:40); One woman’s success story that illustrates how to get board roles (5:32); The benefits of taking on external board positions as an executive (8:15); The biggest misconception CEOs and CHROs have about board positions (16:02); The most common challenges faced by board members today (18:35); Why culture is such a challenge for boards and what to do about it (21:24); Key advice for those at the start of their board journeys (25:24); The most common mistakes people make when applying for board positions (28:40); How to transition from pro bono to paid board roles (30:02), and ⚡the Lightning round ⚡(33:17)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Steve Rigby is Co-CEO of Rigby Group, one of the UK's largest family businesses and in the top 500 largest family companies in the world. Listen to the conversation to hear about: Three key career moments that have shaped Steve’s boardroom thinking (2:02) NED lessons from the retail sector and financial crisis (5:01) How to survive a potential future of inflation, rising prices and crashing assets (9:29) Steve’s playbook for growing and selling businesses (11:51) Lessons on internationalisation (13:40) The best markets to aim for (15:29) The one big inflection point per decade of Steve’s career (17:43) Return on net assets as a north star metric (21:50) Steve’s risk-effort-reward-fun framework (23:33) Why Steve has shifted from a scientific to intuitive assessment of risk (27:03) Key lessons from 50+ acquisitions (30:59) When Steve mistakenly overruled advisors (33:17) How boards help navigate family in family businesses (35:23) ⚡The lightning round ⚡(37:58) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Baroness Dido Harding is a former Chair of NHS Improvement, Executive Chair of NHS Test & Trace, NED at the Bank of England, and CEO of TalkTalk Telecom Group plc. 

In this conversation, we cover:

 • How Dido handled Ofcom scrutiny after taking on her first CEO role at TalkTalk (01:50)
 • Lessons learned from the TalkTalk cyber attack (08:21)
 • The value of functional experts on boards (24:23)
 • Governance lessons from leading NHS Test & Trace (26:56)
 • ⚡ Lightning Round ⚡ (33:18)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Jock Lennox is Senior Independent Director and Audit Committee Chair at Barratt Developments plc, and Chair of Johnson Service Group plc and Clarion Housing Group. Listen to his thoughts on: the three most definitive experiences in your board career (2:01); approaching uncertainty in the boardroom (6:59); shifting boardroom thinking to focus on what’s possible rather than a binary sense of right and wrong (10:21); how to challenge the executive as a board member (11:47); the best way to harness cognitive diversity (14:40); where boards add the most value (16:51); getting the most from strategy days (20:19); what separates good audit committees from bad ones (24:42); how audit committees can assess and influence culture (32:21); getting past people telling you what you want to hear (37:28); when Jock has misjudged an individual — and what he learned (40:50); and the ⚡Lightning Round⚡ (43:54).

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Dr. Margaret Heffernan is author of seven books, including Wilful Blindness, Uncharted and Embracing Uncertainty. A former CEO of InfoMation Corp, ZineZone Corp, and iCast Corp, she was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame in 2024. In this episode, we discuss: Balancing rigidity with flexibility in board meetings (1:35) What great board agendas look like (6:47) When ice -breakers help, and when they don’t (8:35) Helpful versus unhelpful challenge (10:58) Wilful blindness - and why smart people suffer from it (13:32) How to mitigate wilful blindness (16:36) Collaboration versus competition - lessons from The Human Genome Project (18:39) The super-chicken problem, and what should boards can learn from it (21:32) And the ⚡Lightning Round⚡(24:06) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Dr. Margaret Heffernan is author of seven books, including Wilful Blindness, Uncharted and Embracing Uncertainty. A former CEO of InfoMation Corp, ZineZone Corp, and iCast Corp, she was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame in 2024. In this episode, we discuss: What uncertainty does to board decision-making (2:47) Practical ways boards can mitigate it (6:25) Squaring “take your time” with decisiveness (11:10) What a robust boardroom decision process looks like (14:36) Being agile without flip-flopping (18:13) When and how to use cooling-off periods (21:22) What deep hanging out means in practice (22:37) Absorbing context beyond datapoints (25:38) The value of unstructured time in the boardroom (27:54) An example of reaching the right answer without an agenda (32:10)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Peter Clark is a NED at Clarks. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What makes a great i-NED on a family board? (2:15) What should you look for when recruiting NEDs in a family business? (5:27) What questions do you ask when interviewing a NED candidate? (8:07) What mistakes have you made when hiring NEDs in the past? (11:18) How has Clarks remained a family business for 7 generations? (13:39) What is a family council? (16:01) What discussions do you have on the council? (18:39) How do you navigate a professional relationship with a family member? (21:22) How do you select family members to join the council? (22:28) Where do you think you have added the most value as a NED? (26:42) Why did you bring outside investment into Clarks? (28:10) How did the relationship between the Clarks family and the business evolve post investment? (32:28) What advice would you give to other family businesses looking at external investment as an option? (34:03) And ⚡ The Lightning Round ⚡ (39:19)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Carl-Peter Forster is Chair of Vesuvius plc and Keller Group plc. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What experiences from your executive career have shaped your non-executive career? (2:09) How would you counsel a new CEO coming into a business looking to set up their own team? (7:06) What lessons did you learn from the General Motors crisis? (10:12) What did you learn from your time at Tata Motors? (13:56) How do you advise a headstrong founder? (17:11) How do you navigate different business cultures? (21:16) What's been the most difficult board conversation you’ve had as a CEO? (22:36) What frameworks best help a new NED navigate an industrial company? (26:57) How useful is spending money on R&D? (31:05) What risks should boards be most alert to in the defence industry? (35:47) And the ⚡Lightning Round⚡ (40:48)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Laurence Garett is General Partner at Highland Europe, a VC firm, and NED at Wirepas, hyperexponential, Modulr, Featurespace Ltd and Goodlord. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What strategic contributions did the board make to Featurespace’s growth? (2:01)How should board members think about pricing? (9:44) How can board members help organisations bring new products to market? (12:59) What do CEOs and board members need to keep top of mind when moving to the US market? (17:31) What were the toughest boardroom moments in the Featurespace journey? (24:14) What advice do you have to anyone listening who feels they need to replace their chair? (26:28) Featurespace’s exit to Visa was challenging - what lessons are there for listeners? (28:23) Why should start-ups never disclose their price when selling? (33:45) And the⚡ The Lightning Round ⚡(40:25) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Ian Phillips is Chair of Watling Park Primary, consultant at Clew Education and author of How to be a great GoaT, a guide to being a brilliant governor or trustee. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What does the role of governor or trustee involve? (1:57) Are there archetypal board member profiles that you think are most needed? (6:20) What questions should candidates be asking to decide whether they take on a role? (10:46) Can board members add value to schools running at a deficit? (17:03) How do you think about the board’s relationship with the headteacher? (18:48) What metrics do you use to assess a headteacher’s performance? (20:31) Why do data and innovation remain such a challenge in the education sector? (24:21) Why should boards encourage headteachers to allocate time to marketing instead of developing a better offering? (29:03) Are school boards doing enough to address the challenge of students for whom English is a second language? (31:26) What did you mean by “the board employs the headteacher, not the other way around”? (32:50) Why do schools get so many exclusion decisions wrong? (35:41) And 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Karen Blackett CBE is NED at Diageo plc and Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: Where have boards added most value for you as a CEO or a president? (2:21) What advice would you give to CEOs going through a transformation? (7:07) What does good internal communication look like? (14:11) What questions should board members be asking to help a transformation process? (15:15) How do you strike the balance of being a proactive vs overbearing NED? (17:24) How does an organisation like Diageo think about transformation, especially with something like AI? (18:31) How can board members add value on the topic of AI? (25:36) How can boards help build brands? (27:08) What questions should board members be asking about their company’s marketing strategy? (34:16)  When have you been proudest of the cultural change you've created at an organization? (36:27) And ⚡ The Lightning Round ⚡(43:09) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Yvonne Bajela is Partner at LocalGlobe and Latitude. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What value can a board bring to startups? (1:28) What is a North Star metric for startup boards, and should  they be looking for one? (5:28) How do you effectively challenge a founder as a NED? (8:58) How do boards  navigate hypergrowth, with the associated challenges? (10:47) What have been the three most challenging situations you've faced as a board member? (12:02) What have you learnt about dealing with founder breakups as a board member?? (12:54) How should boards navigate a rapid change in market dynamics, such as a pandemic or the introduction of AI? (18:26) What approach should organisations take with regard to AI? (25:20) What heuristics can you use to determine whether an AI business has a moat? (28:13) At what stage should founders build a board? (30:32) What are the moments where you've seen independent directors add transformational value? (32:42) How can founder-CEOs ensure their board is giving them a high return on investment? (36:12) What makes a good investor director? (41:05) And the ⚡ The Lightning Round ⚡ (42:54)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Rita Clifton CBE is Chair of Simplyhealth and Deputy Chair of the John Lewis Partnership. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: Why should boards care more about brand? (1:52) What framework do you use to assess brand when joining a board? (5:49) How should CEOs think about return on brand investment? (8:03) How should boards manage the lag between internal changes and market perception?(17:59) When has your brand expertise helped unlock board-level value? (20:18) What did you do at ASOS when the share price collapsed? (28:17) How should boards handle intense public scrutiny of  their brands? (31:29) Where do boards most often go wrong on brand? (37:19) And ⚡The Lightning round ⚡(40:44)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Fred Destin is founder of Stride VC and was lead investor at Cazoo, Deliveroo, Integral Ad Science and Zoopla. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: Where have you seen start-up board members add most value to their organisations? (1:39) How did the Zoopla board get comfortable with giving away 30% equity in one go? (6:16) How did you manage having customers on your board? (7:26) What KPIs should board members be looking at? (8:27) Have you spotted patterns across particularly valuable board members? (10:34) Why is it wrong to frame board-level discussions around value add? (19:10) You’ve said most boards destroy value - why is that? (34:47) Should board members be more like scientists and less like prosecutors and preachers? (39:48) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(44:20) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Elena Botelho is co-author of the international best-seller, The CEO Next Door, and partner at ghSMART. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What mistakes do boards most often make in CEO succession? (1:50) How should boards use external advice when evaluating CEO candidates? (6:23) What lessons can board members learn from failed CEO hires? (19:46) How can individual board members overcome deference to powerful CEOs? (22:34) What's your framework for hiring a CEO? (25:49) Should CEOs have board roles? (32:53) How should boards decide whether to invest in developing a potential CEO candidate? (36:27) What can boards learn from the companies that consistently produce great CEOs? (40:15) ⚡The Lightning round ⚡(44:11)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Malcolm John is Founder and CEO of Action for Trustee Racial Diversity, a trustee at the Association of Chairs, and former Vice-Chair of Anti-Slavery International. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What was your journey to the boardroom? (2:23) How do you add value to boards? (7:00) How do you gain confidence in the boardroom? (9:53) How do you make someone feel welcome on a board? (15:21) What are the lows of your non-executive journey? (17:28) How much time should you allocate to board roles? (20:15) What is the current state of racial diversity on UK boards? (22:51) What are the most common mistakes organisations make when trying to improve ethnic diversity on their boards? (31:20) How do you ensure diverse board members feel valued on boards? (33:35) And ⚡The Lightning round ⚡(42:34)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Christian Unger is Partner at Partners Group. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What is the Partners Group approach to boards? (1:49) How do you attract CEOs to board roles? (5.23) What is the perfect board size? (10.18) How much ownership do individual NEDs have over specific strategies? (17:56) Where have you seen NEDs add the most value? (26:28) How do you stop disagreement for disagreement’s sake on board? (30:09) How do you measure board member value? (37:44) How many board roles are too many? (39:17) How should boards structure meetings? (40:52) And ⚡The Lightning round ⚡(43:31)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Dorothy Burwell is a Partner at FGS Global, NED at Post Holdings, and Pennon plc. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What key lessons as a comms exec have shaped the way you act as a board member? (2:13) How did you navigate merging four founder-led businesses together at FGS? (4:21) How quickly should changes occur post-merger? (11:17) What advice do you give to an executive team going through a merger? (12:54) How do you discover the culture of an organisation? (13:40) How has your experience at ‘Which?’ shaped your approach to comms in the boardroom? (15:42) What are the cultural differences between a US and UK board? (20:02) How do you deal with crisis comms? (22:18) What are the classic comms errors you see boards making? (24:55) How can organisations surface and escalate crises more rapidly? (27:10) How should boards manage political shifts around things like D&I? (31:56) Should boards be politically active? (34:45)How did you transition from pro bono to paid board roles?? (40:44) And the ⚡The Lightning round ⚡(43:02)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Lisa Gordon is Chair of Cavendish and a  NED at 3i Infrastructure PLC, JP Morgan MidCap Investment Trust PLC and Magic Light Pictures Ltd. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What sort of a NED are you? (2:10) How do you gain confidence in the boardroom? (7:37) How reliant are you on outside support to maintain your courage? (11:59) How challenging are capital markets? (15:57)  How can board members help position their organisations better in a challenging macro environment? (19:02) What should NEDs be discussing about the capital markets? (23:57) What capital market reforms are currently in the pipeline? (27:12) How can board members capitalise on the opportunities reforms will produce?? (29:46) ⚡The Lightning round ⚡(33:26) and the Audience Q and A (37:30)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Tim Jackson is the founder of QXL and a General Partner at Walking Ventures. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What is your founder and CEO journey? (2:03) Where did the board add most value? (7:23) What do you wish your board had done for you knowing what you know now? (10:50) What are the most common reasons for a CEO to lose control of a company? (12:42) How can CEO’s better prepare for breaking point crises? (16:40) Are there patterns in behaviour of CEO’s who get the most value out of boards? (18:58) Should assessing particular characteristics be a part of CEO recruitment? (20:43) As a coach, do you ever anticipate that a board should replace A CEO before it  ends up happening? (22:22) How should CEOs adapt as their companies scale? (23:52) Do investor directors add value? (30:45) What metrics should boards be assessing their management teams on? (37:50) What macro-trends should NEDs be watching out for? (38:58) and ⚡The Lightning round ⚡(41:46)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Jurga Zilinskiene is founder of Guildhawk, Evernoon, Today Translations and Today Academy. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: How does the board at Guildhawk add value? (1:49) What roles did friends and advisors play early on in your business journey? (6:03) How did you transition from receiving informal advice to establishing a formal board? (10:32) How did your board advance your strategy? (15:37) How should boards be responding to AI? (18:39) How has your board helped you think about geographic distribution? (25:57) What makes a good NED recruitment process? (30:58) What lessons have you learned from past recruitment processes? (35:03) How do you performance manage board members? (38:22) And ⚡The Lightning round ⚡(41:58)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Gerry Murphy is Chair of Tesco and Burberry, Trustee at The Burberry Foundation and Senior Advisor at Perella Weinberg. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What were the three most consequential boardroom moments for you as a CEO? (1:42) How can boards assess how much control they have over external factors? (6:26) What frameworks do you use to assess risk? (9:33) What megatrends should be shaping strategy today? (12:29) How do you decide whether a trend is structural or cyclical? (15:01) What are the practical, board-level implications of the AI megatrend? (16:51) As CEO and Chair, where have you seen CEO succession work best? (20:30) Where do you see boards adding most value now? (27:01) How should boards strike a balance between long and short term issues? (28:34) What KPIs do you ask for from the exec team? (33:32) What can private and listed boards learn from each other? (34:22) What’s stopping them from learning these lessons? (36:11) If you could design an ideal management incentive structure, what would it look like? (37:27)⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(38:24) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Cindy Rampersaud is NED at Sage Homes and formerly SID at Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: How have you decided which pro bono roles to take on? (1.47) What have you gained from pro bono opportunities? (3.36) How do you build relationships on boards? (5.19)  How does a board recruit the right CEO? (10.42) What role should the board play in shaping digital strategy? (13.15) What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a trustee? (18.16) How do you navigate the pro-bono to commercial transition? (21.14) What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a commercial board member? (28.38) How do you ensure constructive dialogue on a board? (33.41) What have you learnt about crisis management in the boardroom? (37.16) And ⚡The Lightning round ⚡(40:01)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Kate Swann is Chair of Moonpig, Beijer Ref, Parques Reunidos, and IVC Evidensia and former CEO of WH Smith. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: As a CEO, where have seen boards add most value? (1:56) Are board members more valuable as individuals, or as a collective? (7:35) What boardroom archetypes are  most useful to a CEO? (8:54) What have you learnt from being a NED that would have made you a better CEO? (12:24) What can listed boards learn from  PE boards? (14:53) What's the thread that goes through your portfolio roles? (18:53)  What has been hardest for you during your CEO to chair transition? (21:57) Are there different CEO archetypes? (27:04) What have been the most challenging situations you have faced as a chair? (28:26) How do you allocate your time as a chair? (31:15) How have you dealt with acquisitions as a chair? (32:32) What is the difference between chair leadership and CEO leadership? (37:46)  What personal development are you doing to get better as a chair? (39:48) and ⚡The Lightning round ⚡(41:24)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Annemarie Durbin is Chair at YBS. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: How did you become comfortable as Chair of the Yorkshire Building Society (YBS)? (1:50) How much time did you commit, as a new chair, to YBS? (4:45) What lessons have you learnt from previous chair transitions? (7:48) How valuable was having a mentor during your chairship? (9:30) Who are some examples of good chairs you have served under? (11:15) What are some examples of bad chairing? (14:09) What are the most difficult situations you face as a chair?  (16:24) What is the difference between a subsidiary board and top co board? (18:38) How does the relationship between a CEO and a chair differ from that between a CEO and their coach? (21:00)Do coaching qualifications make you a better chair? (25:43) What are building societies? (28:11) What are the strategic threats facing Yorkshire Building Society? (33:18) Has previously being a company secretary made you a better NED? (36:40) Has the fact that you sat on a ‘sin-stock’ board ever been an issue in finding new non-exec opportunities? (39:54) And ⚡The Lightning round ⚡(41:55)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kold

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom