Episode Details

(0:00) Intro to this episode

(2:52) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel

(3:39) Start of interview

(4:18) Keith Giarman's origin story. About DHR Global

(9:33) Tony Abate's origin story. Current boards: Wolfspeed, GTT Communications, Mitel, and Tacora Resources.

(23:52) Turnaround Board Playbook. Three phases: 1) Fix the balance sheet; 2) Turnaround strategy, and time to turn to the income statement; and 3) Exit the business.

(28:50) Private Equity Board Structure. It is all contextual.

(33:40) Compensation in PE boards.

(31:15) What Makes Boards Effective, from Tony based on his chairmanship experience. Execution vs process. *Execution: 1) Skill Set Distribution ("Three is too few, five too many."), 2) Relevance of that skill set distribution to the situation at hand, and 3) Willingness to engage with the management team between board meetings ("the most important" goes to board culture).

(38:34) Building the Board Agenda, from Tony: Tight agenda in three buckets: 1) Decisions needed now, 2) input without a decision, and 3) FYI. Most boards get stuck on FYI and never reach the real decisions. Then 40 to 50% of the deck should be standardized financial and operational KPIs (flag only what's changing), one rotating deep dive, and executive sessions with and without the CEO.

(42:53) LLCs and Governance Dynamics in PE.

(45:52) AI and Board Talent Demand. "Matrix management"

(50:36) Underestimated Governance Risks. From Keith: for board members: "Are they aligned? Are they courageous? And are they adaptive?" From Tony: "The board should talk about the what, not the how." Difference between supervising and execution. Caveat: some PE firms are very prescriptive.

(56:23) Founder-Led or Board-Led companies.

(1:00:16) What are the 1-3 books that have greatly influenced your life: 

1. Tony: 
   1. Titan by Ron Chernow (1998)
   2. Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris (volume 2 of the trilogy) (2001)
   3. The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson (2004)
2. Keith:
   1. Mornings on Horseback, by David McCullough (1981)

   2. Listen Now