Episode Details

0:00 -- Intro.

1:11-- About this podcast's sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.

2:08 -- Start of interview.

2:47 -- Julie's "origin story." She started her work with boards in the early 1980s with Catalyst (a non-profit women's organization whose mission is to promote women in corporate America).

5:46 -- Now she's leading the Board Practice at Spencer Stewart.

6:15 -- About the 2023 U.S. Spencer Stuart Board Index. Now in its 38th year, this index examines the latest data and trends in board composition, board governance practices and director compensation among S&P 500 companies.

7:46 -- Comparing and contrasting board practices in  S&P 500 companies with mid or small cap companies. Example: Spencer Stuart S&P MidCap 400 Index. "The trends are set in the bigger companies, and the smaller companies follow."

10:08 -- Highlights from the 2023 U.S. Spencer Stuart Board Index.

1. Skills: return to the desire to have CEOs and financial skills in the boardroom. "The recruitment of retired or active CEOs rose this year to 30% of the incoming class, which was a big uptick. And boards also recruited more directors with financial backgrounds, and they accounted for about 27% of the new directors. In both categories, retirees outnumbered active executives." "42% of S&P 500 CEOs serve on a board, meaning 58% do not. So when boards are looking for active or retired CEOs, like they were this year, they tend to look more in the retired category because they're just more available."
2. On the practice of overboarding: "It has changed dramatically." "Now there's a restriction on how many boards a CEO can serve on. 
   They can serve on one." "I think now most boards think that [an outside] director can serve on three total, [due to the] time [required] to devote to the company."
3. [14:33] On companies restricting executives on serving on outside boards: "[Some] companies restrict board membership, but they don't forbid it generally."
4. [15:58] Increase in time and commitment for board members:  "It is a much more time-intensive job than it used to be." "There was a survey that was out a while ago that said board members spent 210 hours or something like that, we just did a pulse survey of directors It came back saying they think it's 350 hours now." "So it's a very time intensive job and much different than it used to be."
5. [16:58] Survey on NomGov Chairs: "CEO experience is at the top of their list and financial experience for next year."
6. [18:34] International experience: "International experience has really gone up among independent directors this year, 54% had spent time working outside the US, 18% were from outside the US. So that's a big changeover. If you looked for 10 years ago, that number would have been 8%."
7. [20:18] Low turnover in boardrooms and mandatory retirement age: "We had really low turnover in the boardroom [which I find to be concerning]. This year was 7% of boards seats turned. Yet last year it was 8%, the year before it was 9%." "So boards don't change, they are evolutionary bodies. And not many people leave, whic