A group at the INSEAD business school which focuses on corporate governance conducted over 70 face-to-face interviews with board chairs from several countries. How do they see the future? Over the next 10 years there will be a continuing evolution.
Gender and age: no major changes
By 2027 there will probably be more female chairs and also more female directors; even then, however, women will still remain in a minority. Denmark is projecting up to 25 percent of female board leaders, the UK up to 20 percent.
However, according to one chair from Singapore, diversity for him is about the company's needs at the given moment. So, for example, it is more about specialised skillsets, such as private equity, legal or bookkeeping expertise, rather than a question of gender.
Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook is, at the age of 33, a young exception among chairs. Eric Schmidt at Google, who is 62, represents a much more typical age for chairs.
In the future, there will be more chairs in their 40s; nonetheless, it is very likely that professionals in their 70s and 80s will continue to dominate. Thus the average age of a chair will decrease only slightly in the next decade. When it comes to Russia, chairs will be recruited mainly from the ranks of (ex-)government officials, some of whom will regard this position as a comfortable retirement plan.
More diverse backgrounds
There will be more foreign chairs in countries which currently are relatively homogeneous in terms of nationality. Due to more diverse boards, the way of working will also see changes.
Chairing boards will require more time and greater concentration. People who chair several corporate boards will not be as common as today.
Today, most chairs are former executives, and CEOs will continue to prevail in the foreseeable future. But there will also appear chairs with an academic background, as well as people from consulting and tech industries.
-jk