Episode Details

0:00 -- Intro.

1:35 -- Start of interview.

2:05 -- Penny's "origin story".

3:38 -- Her experience as CEO of Simplex including its IPO (2001) and later sale (2002).

6:32 -- Her experience as CEO of FirstRain.

7:57 -- On her board journey. Public boards (past and present): Rambus, JDSU, Faurecia (France), Lumentum, Smart Global, Forvia, Embarck Trucks. Private tech software company boards: Delphix and Modern Health.

9:17 -- On distinctions between private and public boards. "A private VC-backed board is much more of a heavy lift than a public board... it's very interesting and you may not get paid [because it's based on stock]."

13:35-- On serving as an independent director in a private VC-backed company during the down-cycle. How VCs are reacting. "It's better to take a lower valuation from a high-quality strategic individual than it is to chase the highest valuation because a bad investor will hurt you faster than anything else."

16:00 -- On serving as Chair of public companies. "The biggest difference [between Chair and other directors] is that as Chair, you are the last to speak. It's really important to know that the role of the Chair is [to seek] the high quality functioning of the board and the participation of all the directors, not to share your opinion." "Leadership by listening rather than by speaking."

18:12 -- On the separation of Chair and CEO roles. "It's really important that you really do have an independent board."

20:29 -- On dual-class stock and founder control. "The benefit of dual-class stock with the benefit of a good founder is clarity of the strategy [preventing distraction]." "But there is a trade-off."

23:35 -- On the role of the board in strategy and innovation. "You have to create a culture to challenge at the board level."

26:30 -- Her take on ESG and the anti-ESG backlash. "I'm very pro-ESG, particularly E." "You have to have courage to lead." 

33:33 -- On geopolitics and tensions with China. "We need more of a balancing than a decoupling (which is naive and unhealthy)." "The US has a complete chokehold on China for semiconductor manufacturing." "The semiconductor equipment comes from the US and Holland, and the software to design chips comes from California (dominated by two companies: Synopsis and Cadence)."

39:06 -- On the transition to EVs in the automotive industry.

40:38 -- On the evolution of boardroom diversity. "The California laws (SB-826 and AB-979), whether constitutional or not, brought great momentum for more board diversity."

42:59 -- On her experience serving on French (and EU) company boards (which have board diversity quotas and union representatives on the board).

47:55 -- How the automotive industry will change through technology and innovation. 

50:24 -- The books that have greatly influenced her life (in this case, these books re-wired her brain on European history): 

1. From the Holy Mountain, by William Dalrymple (1997)
2. The Silk Roads, a New History of the World, by Peter Frankopan (2015)

52:10 -- Her mentors, and what she learned from them. 

1. Harvey Jones, former CEO of Synopsis. "the powe