Gerry Brown is Chair of Novaquest Capital Management and G Brown Associates. A plural Chair and NED across private equity, family and listed businesses, Gerry is co-author of three books about boards, including Disaster in the Boardroom. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: Is there such a thing as a comprehensive risk checklist applicable to all boards? (2:07) How do you apply your framework of the six archetypal board dysfunctions on the boards you sit on? (4:01) With a limited number of seats, how do you ensure you get the right voices in the boardroom? (6:57) How do you bring outside voices into the boardroom? (9:04) Can you talk about the problem of the distended board at Uber? (12:27) Are some dysfunctional archetypes more prevalent than others? (16:37) What relevance do these dysfunctions have beyond big corporates? (19:48) What advice would you give a new board member who wants to challenge a successful CEO? (23:54) How do you define and measure healthy board culture? (28:50) Can you give an example where you’ve changed a problematic board culture? (32:42) When haven’t you been able to change board culture? (34:59) How do you remove control shareholders who are damaging other stakeholders? (35:38) How do you assess independent directors as a Chair? (37:29) How do you assess integrity? (39:52) What professional development do you undertake? (40:43) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(44:12) 

Host: Oliver Cummings
Producer: Will Felton
Music: Kate Mac
Audio: Nick Kold
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

When have boards added most value to you as an exec? (2:48) When was the last time your board challenged you as CEO? (5:38) How can non-execs challenge execs, without compromising trust? (7:05) How have you and the board of the Natural History Museum got comfortable that your 550m transformation project won’t overrun? (8:52) Could you distill Amazon’s ways of working and how they might apply to boards? (12:33) Can non-execs help instil good judgement in execs? (18:46) What are the other ways in which non-execs can materially impact their organisations? (25:12) How should board members be thinking about AI? (28:44) What can board members do to better undertake their environmental responsibilities? (32:44) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(35:11) Audience Q&A (40:57) 

Host: Oliver Cummings
Producer: Will Felton
Music: Kate Mac
Audio: Nick Kold
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Ali Parsa founded Babylon Health, which he grew to a $4.1bn equity valuation in 2021 before it entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in 2023. Tune in to hear this amazing story, including Ali’s thoughts on: How has your backstory, escaping Iran in the 80s, informed your approach to entrepreneurship? (2:20) How have you managed to fundraise so successfully? (3:21) What advice do you have for others who are fundraising? (8:01) How did you scale revenues so quickly?(11:24) How did you break into the right distribution channels? (15:12) How do you identify the right person at partner organisations? (16:18) Was launching in the UK rather than US a mistake? (20:40) How did you decide which markets to go after? (25:06) What can board members do to encourage better cross-functional collaboration? (28:24) What value did you get from investor-directors? (31:13) What lessons did you learn through bankruptcy? (35:44) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(38:39) 

Host: Oliver Cummings
Producer: Will Felton
Music: Kate Mac
Audio: Nick Kold
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Amy C. Edmondson is a Professor of Leadership & Management at Harvard Business School. Ranked #1 management thinker in the world by Thinkers50, Amy has written seven books, including Right Kind of Wrong and the fearless organization. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What is psychological safety and why does it matter for board members? (1:44) Can we overcome our fear of what others think of us, even if we’re aware of it? (4:02) Isn’t psychological safety just a grandiose term for inclusion? (5:12) As board members, what should we be looking at to assess our organisation’s psychological safety? (7:24) Are there predictable events that trigger drops in psychological safety? (10:16) How can organisations mitigate the impact of remote work on psychological safety? (13:10) How can boards increase the quality of their conversations through psychological safety? (14:14) Can you talk about “setting the stage” and specific tactics boards can use to have more candid conversations? (17:02) How do you sanction violations whilst maintaining psychological safety? (19:27) How would you advise board members to challenge execs in meetings? (24:46) How can boards decide if their CEO is a difficult genius to stick with or someone they should let go? (26:11) Where do we go wrong when thinking about failure? (28:51) When is it right to proceed via first principles versus A|B testing? (34:50) Could the boards at VW, Wells Fargo and Nokia have prevented their respective failures? (36:08) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(40:01)

Host: Oliver Cummings
Producer: Will Felton
Music: Kate Mac
Audio: Nick Kold
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Sara Weller CBE is Chair of the Money and Pension Service and former/NED at BT, Virgin Money and Lloyds Banking Group and UK Department for Work and Pensions amongst many others. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: How have you built a plural career across the private and public sectors? (2:04) What are the similarities and differences between the public and private sector board roles? (4:08) When should people take on their first board position? (6:25) Can you take on a role too early? (9:35) How can board candidates make themselves stand out? (11:49) Are you always the voice of the customer in the boardroom, irrespective of product? (19:24) How do you balance your personal customer experiences with big data? (22:19) How do you express challenge as a NED? (24:44) Can you talk about your own experience of disability in the boardroom? (27:07) How much time should boards allocate to think about disability? (32:13) What three things can boards do now to help disabled board members and customers? (34:03) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(36:51) 

Host: Oliver Cummings
Producer: Will Felton
Music: Kate Mac
Audio: Nick Kold
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Jenny Knott is NED at the British Business Bank, the UK Development Bank & SimplyHealth and Founder of FinTech Strategic Advisors Ltd. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What was your journey into the boardroom? (1:44) How did you transition from internal to independent boards? (3:50) When you were CEO, was your board your highest return on your time invested? (6:06) Do board members add more value in or outside meetings? (10:10) Who is board performance for? (12:38) Can boards really perform their monitoring function? (13:19) What do NEDs need to understand first when they come onto FS boards? (15:45) Where do they go wrong? (17:52) How can NEDs from different sectors get their heads around unfamiliar regulations? (20:06) Do start-up boards have a different relationship with regulation (versus larger firms)? (24:12) Where do they go wrong, engaging with the regulator? (26:44) What are your key value levers as a Remco member? (28:15) What would your dream incentive structure look like? (32:45) Should we include debt in compensation packages? (35:05) And ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(41:18) 

Host: Oliver Cummings
Producer: Will Felton
Music: Kate Mac
Audio: Nick Kold
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Professor Renée Adams is a professor of finance at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: Do popular boardroom surveys provide an accurate picture of women’s underrepresentation? (0:56) Would the financial crash have happened if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters? (3:38)  Are crises inevitable? (5:02) Are there any differences between female and male directors? (6:59) Why is our current way of thinking about the causes of female under-representation wrong? (10:19) Does adding women to your board improve shareholder value? (16:02) Are quotas effective for improving female director representation? (18:04) What are the latest boardroom myths that need debunking? (19:44) How would you build your dream board? (21:39)  ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(22:26) Audience Q&A (23:54)  

Host: Oliver Cummings
Producer: Will Felton
Music: Kate Mac
Audio: Nick Kold
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Edwina Dunn the co-founder of dunnhumby, the data analytics company behind Tesco's Clubcard and numerous loyalty programs worldwide. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What were the key value adds of the dunnhumby board? (0:50) How did you manage to land the transformative deal with Tesco? (3:14) How did it feel when you landed the deal? (6:54) How did you get comfortable making one big bet on one customer? (7:56) Why were Tesco happy to share their sensitive data with you and not others? (9:36) Did  your investor directors add any value? (12:42) What was the board’s role in your growth? (16:20) When and how did you break into new markets? (19:16) Did all the markets work out equally well? (20:16) How did you make sure you got the best deals in your strategic partnerships? (22:20) Did you get your pricing right? (23:41) If you’d had a board, do you think it would have been able to add more value to you on that journey? (28:37) What was the single biggest value add of your independent director? (31:27) How did you do your exit? (34:58) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(38:22)  

Host: Oliver Cummings
Producer: Will Felton
Music: Kate Mac
Audio: Nick Kold
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Nick Jenkins is Founder and former CEO of Moonpig, former Dragon on Dragon’s Den, Chair of Virtualstock, NED at Green Energy Options and Trustee at Operation Fistula. Nick has recently founded the South Wilts Ski Club, an infinity ski slope in Wiltshire. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What were your key sources of support and challenge in the early days at Moonpig? (2:26) How did you pick your first investor-directors? (4:40) What distinctive value did each of your investor-directors bring? (5:42) How did you keep going when your investors told you it wasn’t going to work? (7:06) How did you unlock the value of your board? (8:14) What was the biggest disagreement you had with the board? (9:05) Can you talk through your transition from Founder to Exec Chair? (10:01) How did you strike the balance between autonomy and oversight for your successor? (11:34) How do you add value as a NED today? (13:10) What advice do you have for those trying to scale a successful culture? (13:51) As a board member, how do you make sure organisations make the best use of data? (17:09) Why did you choose repeat rate as your north star metric at Moonpig? (19:32) Should all businesses have north star metrics? (20:09) How do you assess business plans as a board member? (22:18) How important is it to hit business plan targets? (24:53) Would your CEOs say your boards are the highest return on their time invested? (26:13) How do you help your businesses spot opportunities as a board member? (28:47) How do you help them identify their growth levers? (33:52) ⚡ The Lightning Round ⚡(39:57)

Host: Oliver Cummings
Producer: Will Felton
Music: Kate Mac
Audio: Nick Kold
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Dame Alison Carnwath is Audit Committee Chair at EG Group and Asda, NED at PACCAR and Coller Capital, Chair of Livingbridge Strategic Advisory Board and Senior Advisor at Evercore. She was formerly Chair at Land Securities. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What was your journey into the boardroom? (2:22) How did you transition to new sectors as a NED? (4:08) How do you determine what the critical issues are as a board member? (9:23) Do you ask for information about why employees leave the company? (12:04) What do you see as the best board structure? (13:34) What are your guiding principles for thinking about executive compensation? (17:12) How have you learnt to deal with non-unanimous agreement in the boardroom? (21:52) How did you navigate the financial crisis as chair of Land Securities? (26:01) What was the dynamic between you, the CEO and the rest of the board in that situation? (31:37) As Chair, what were your sources of support and challenge? (32:52) ⚡ The Lightning Round ⚡(34:59) 

Host: Oliver Cummings
Producer: Will Felton
Music: Kate Mac
Audio: Nick Kold
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom