The Boardroom Path

What changes when a seasoned executive joins a board and must influence decisions without executive authority?

In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Quintin Price, Chair of Oxford University Endowment Management and formerly of BlackRock, about what makes a non-executive director useful once they reach the table. Quintin draws on board roles at a listed investment trust, a grant-making charity, a US start-up and a university endowment. He explains why the board exists to represent the owners, why a chair should speak last, and why the chair can change the player but...

How do you judge a leader's contribution when the most important results may not arrive for another four years?

In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Andrew Strauss, former England cricket captain, former Director of England Cricket and executive chairman of Mindflick, about what the boardroom can take from elite sport. They look at why alignment between chair and CEO matters more than any planning document, how England's impressive 2015 World Cup plan failed on the pitch, and how a board decides when to lean in and when to stay out of the...

What happens when a board's reputation comes under attack before anyone knows what actually happened?

In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Tim Robinson, partner at Schillings and a former British Army Major General, about why reputational resilience is a governance discipline rather than a communications exercise. They examine how data breaches, leaked documents, extortion and coordinated smear campaigns move across social and traditional media in minutes, and why boards that place reputation near the top of the risk register often do little practical preparation. Tim argues that the most important commodity...

How long should a good board member stay in the room? 

In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Professor Alex Hill, Professor of Operations Management at Kingston Business School and co-founder of the Centre for High Performance, about what keeps organisations successful across generations rather than quarters.

The timing matters. Russell Reynolds Associates recorded 234 chief executive departures globally in 2025, a 16% rise on the year before, with the average tenure of outgoing CEOs falling to 7.1 years, according to its Global CEO Turnover Index. Alex's own study of 440 school leaders found that t...

What does leadership look like when nobody in the room can simply give an order?

In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Lieutenant Colonel Dean Canham OBE, former head of the Centre for Army Leadership, about leading in a setting where authority is collective and the chair has limited unilateral power. Dean sets out the Army's definition of leadership as character, knowledge and action that inspires others to succeed, and explains why he treats leadership as a capability to be trained rather than a by-product of rank.

The conversation lands...

How do board careers actually get made, and how much of that can a candidate control?

In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Marianne Macdonald, founder and CEO of The 350 Club and The Board Directory, about the hidden board market and why between a half and two thirds of board appointments never involve an intermediary. Marianne spent seven years as a board headhunter at The Zygos Partnership before building three platforms for senior board talent, so she sees both sides of the table.

They look at the myth that you...

What should a board change first if only 37% of directors think it is essential to creating value?

Ralph Grayson visits Board Intelligence to talk to Megan Pantelides, author of the Board Value Index, about the third edition of the research. Drawing on more than 400 non-executive directors, chief executives and finance directors across the UK, US, Middle East and, for the first time, the Nordics, it finds that 86% of directors say rigid processes and inconsistent frameworks contributed to a delayed, rushed or poor decision in the past six months.

Megan makes the case that most of...

Can a board certify judgement, or does judgement only show up under pressure?

In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Dr Shefaly Yogendra, board director, decision-making researcher and author of Uncharted Spaces: Reset the Agenda. Reimagine the Boardroom, about how boards decide when precedent runs out. Shefaly argues that most boards were designed for a world that no longer exists, that certification gives a novice a baseline but cannot produce boardroom behaviour, and that long experience turns into a liability the moment it is treated as a monolith rather than a set...

Why do some boards freeze the moment pressure arrives, while others adapt and lead? In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Dorothy Burwell, Global Head of Board Advisory at FGS Global and a board director at Post Holdings and Pennon plc, about what she calls adaptive capacity, the ability to learn, unlearn and make sound judgement calls when experience alone is no longer enough.

Dorothy cites Deloitte research showing generative AI-enabled fraud could cost businesses 40 billion US dollars by 2027, up from 12.3 billion in 2023, and explains why boards can no longer treat...

How should a board govern an organisation that its community believes it owns?

In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Steve Kavanagh, Head of gunnercooke Sport and former chief executive of Millwall Football Club, about what good governance in elite sport actually looks like. Steve draws on 25 years across Charlton Athletic, Southend United and Millwall, plus a term as an elected director of the English Football League, to explain why football is a business with the same metrics and duties as any other, and why emotion makes it far harder to run.<...

What happens when a board only hears what it is allowed to hear?

In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Andrew Seerden, an independent director and Growth Advisory Board chair based in Auckland, about why boards fail on information rather than intelligence. Drawing on a live case, a $350 million New Zealand B2B business whose long-serving CEO delivered growth while running a culture of fear, Andrew explains why psychological safety is a governance design task for the chair, not a cultural aspiration for HR.

The timing matters. PwC's latest board...

How well do boards really understand the system that owns and funds them?

In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Sallie Pilot, Managing Director of the Investor and Issuer Forum, about why the investment chain has become a core governance responsibility rather than an investor relations afterthought. They explore how capital can flow through as many as eight layers between an asset owner and a company, why boards often misread the signals they receive, and how chairs can build trust through genuine, two-way dialogue rather than scripted, one-way updates.

With...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 f...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 bo...

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 t...

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 be...

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 dire...

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...

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...

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...

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"...

Is the UK truly "rubbish" at scaling up its most promising companies?

Host Ralph Grayson welcomes financial markets trailblazer Alasdair Haynes, founder and now President of Aquis Exchange, for an honest discussion on building and scaling a disruptive business. Alasdair shares his 48-year journey, from City trading floors to successfully exiting Aquis to SIX Group, and provides a firsthand account of the founder-to-President transition.

The conversation dissects the critical importance of board evolution and founder succession planning, emphasising that it must be for the "common good" of the company, not a mere "tick box exercise"...

Do you struggle to articulate your value in the boardroom, or feel trapped in the 'executive doer' mindset? Host Ralph Grayson is joined by Fiona Hathorn, CEO of WB Directors (now part of Nurole) and an expert in Governance and Talent Management, to dissect the challenges and strategies for building a thriving Non-Executive Director (NED) career. Fiona shares her personal journey and the mission behind WB Directors, emphasising that you are "never too young, never too old, and never too male" to be on a board.

The discussion provides tactical advice, from using the 'seven reasons' to...

Is the UK market finally ready for an IPO resurgence, and what must growth company boards do to prepare? 

Host Ralph Grayson welcomes James Ashton, Chief Executive of the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA), a leading advocacy group for small and mid-sized quoted companies in the UK. James draws on his background in financial journalism and as a FTSE 250 Non-Executive Director to discuss the critical role of public equity in driving economic growth across the UK. 

They dive into the QCA’s mission to amplify members’ voices to regulators and government, their comprehensive governance guidance, and the ne...

How can board directors move beyond being overwhelmed by thousands of pages of materials and start genuinely driving performance? 

This episode features Raffaela Rein, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and multi-board director, who argues that the current state of governance is unsustainable. She draws on her journey from BlackRock and launching companies for Rocket Internet to her roles on boards, including Porsche and IU, to highlight the critical gap in director support.

Raffaela details the board effectiveness crisis, noting that, according to a recent PwC survey, over half of directors believe a colleague should be replaced, s...

Are you struggling to bridge the gap between an executive role and securing your first Non-Executive Director position?

In this episode, host Ralph Grayson welcomes Susanne Chishti, Founder and Chair of FINTECH Circle and a seasoned board member on both private and FTSE 250 boards, to explore how high-calibre professionals can leverage their expertise for the benefit of early-stage companies. Susanne details the contrasting, yet complementary, demands of board service, from the hands-on, problem-solving required by a start-up founder to the governance-focused oversight of a public company.

The discussion provides vital counsel for aspiring NEDs, highlighting...

Are boards truly prepared for today's hyper-volatile geopolitical landscape? 

In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson speaks with Charles Myers, Chairman and Founder of Signum Global Advisors, a distinguished geopolitical strategist. They delve into the complexities of a Trump 2.0 presidency, the fragmentation of global alliances, and the need for boards to treat geopolitical risk with the same seriousness as financial or cyber risk. 

This comes as the US and UK have recently announced a historic £150 billion investment package, signalling a renewed "special relationship" between the two nations, even as the Trump administration is...

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a truly effective board director in today’s rapidly changing world? In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson sits down with Dr. Scarlett Brown, Director of the Think Tank at Board Intelligence. They dive into the critical shifts happening in corporate governance, from the rise of AI to the need for boards to drive more value.

Scarlett shares her unique journey from feminist sociologist to "corporate governance nerd" and explains why she believes board effectiveness is a science, not an art. The conversation uncovers sobering st...

Have you ever wondered how to land your first non-executive director  role? 

In this episode of The Boardroom Path, host Ralph Grayson is joined by Sarah Pierman, the CEO of Dynamic Boards. A NED herself since the age of 29, Sarah shares her fascinating journey from a career in finance to disrupting the board recruitment industry. She explains how the traditional NED market is "broken" by nepotism and expensive, exclusive platforms, and reveals her vision for making UK boards the most dynamic in the world.

Sarah breaks down the different types of board roles—from public comp...