Episode Details

(0:00) About the Boardroom Governance Summit (Aug 26-27, 2026) 

(1:20) Intro

(2:45) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.

(3:31) Start of interview. 

(4:55) Origin Story of Sandra Gobert

(6:04) Sandra’s Career Path

(8:56) Guberna and Board Education. Member of EcoDa.

(12:00) Family Firms and Control in EU

(13:53) Relationship Agreements Explained (examples, Bpost and Proximus)

(19:05) State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), and Government involvement on Boards

(19:58) The Board’s Emerging Fourth Role: advocacy and policymaking, alongside its traditional strategic, leadership, and oversight responsibilities.

(22:52) AI and Alternative Structures. PBCs, Foundations, and other European multi-stakeholder models.

(29:25) Employees on the Board ("unacceptable in Belgium").

(31:01) Toward European Harmonization ("We need more Europe, not less Europe")

(31:50) The EU Inc. Idea

(33:57) Principle-Based Governance ("Comply or Explain" framework)

(36:19) The Value of Board Evaluations

(41:05) Founder Control in Tech (dual class share structures)

(44:05) Europe’s Power Shift 

(46:34) China and Global Competition

(49:42) Europe’s Economic Pressures (reference to The Economist's interview with Elon Musk)

(52:23) Board Dynamics Matter

(53:19) Books that have greatly influenced her life:

1. Catherine de Médicis, ou, La reine noire, by Jean Orieux (1986)
2. Passion, by Jude Morgan (2005)
3. The Journey of Leadership by Hans-Werner Kaas, Dana Maor, Kurt Strovink, Ramesh Srinivasan (2024)

(54:59) Her mentors. 

(55:52) Quotes that she thinks of often or lives her life by. 

(57:09) An unusual habit or an absurd thing that she loves. 

(58:05) The living person she most admires in governance: Christine Lagarde.

Sandra Gobert is the Executive Director of GUBERNA. Sandra also serves as an independent director of Fluxys Belgium, sits on the board