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You’ve had a great CIO career filled with transformational triumphs and award-winning projects and teams. What’s next for your career before you retire? Board service, of course!  

With cybersecurity keeping CEOs up at night and digital transformation all the rage, the number of CIOs on corporate boards is increasing. For experienced IT leaders looking to get out of operations and into the Socratic world of private or corporate boards, this means serious opportunity, as corporate boards are keen on putting CIOs’ transformational experience to work at the next level.

Wayne Shurts can tell the tale of leveraging CIO experience into board work. Shurts was CIO for Cadbury, Supervalu, and then for food distribution giant Sysco when he was appointed to his first board, for Con-Way Freight and Trucking, then a $5 billion public company, in 2015. Unlike many CEOs, Supervalu’s CEO allowed Shurts to accept the board appointment, provided Shurts assure him that that board work would not distract from his CIO role. 

How board service is different

The chair of the Con-Way board gave Shurts sound advice about the difference between executive management and board service. “He said that the board is all about helping management craft a strategy, but letting management execute on it,” says Shurts. “Despite a long career of executing on strategies, I had to let that part go.” 

Soon after Shurts joined the Con-Way board, the company was sold to XPO, which gave Shurts early experience in weighing in on the terms of a public company sale. 

Shurts retired from Sysco in 2019, and then joined the board of Armstrong World Industries, another public company. He was approached on the recommendation of the former Con-Way chair, which underscores the fact that a large percentage of board appointments come from a board’s networks rather than through search firms. 

That same month, Shurts joined his first private board, for a third-generation family import and distribution business. “Unlike the public company boards, this is not a fiduciary board because the family decides what to do with the money,” he says. “But other than that, the board has the same role as public company boards.” 

Since then, Shurts has added two more private boards to his plate, which he enjoys because, “private boards can be more fun than public boards; there is less bureaucracy,” he says. 

Advice for finding a board seat

With all of this board experience, Shurts can offer some advice to CIOs seeking board work. First, given that most board appointments come through your network, “let the people in your networks, and especially people who are on boards, know of your intent,” he says. “And that includes the board of your current company.” 

But before you start calling people, decide what kind of board you want to join, whether public or private, and in what industry. “I’ve spent almost my entire career in food, and my boards are either food distribution, grocery, or logistics,” he says. “I don’t know if I could have joined a board in an unrelated industry.” 

Also, put together your board bio, which is very different from a resume. Rather than a chronological list of your experiences, your board bio is a one-page document that, in a just a few paragraphs, presents a strategic view of your experience.

Shurts suggests that when writing your board bio you read the board section of a few corporate annual reports. These typically have a board matrix with dots next to the expertise areas that each board member checks off. “You will never get a board position if the only box you can check is technology or cyber,” says Shurts, “Make sure your board bio demonstrates expertise in multiple boxes, like finance, supply chain, international experience, or M&A. The broader set of experiences you can represent in your bio, the better.”

Interviewing for a board position

Shurts advises that you bring the same strategy to the board interview. “The board interview is at higher level than an executive management interview,” he says. “You should be prepared to cover your operational experience, but that’s not the point of the interview. The board wants to know that you understand the role of the board and that you can think strategically.” 

With roughly 80% of boards made up of CEOs and CFOs, boards are pushing for diversity of background for sure, but also for diversity of thought, which CIOs certainly bring to the table.

“The boards will not test your technology expertise during an interview,” says Shurts, “because they don’t know exactly what technology expertise they need. Rather than talk about ERP programs or technology spend, you are better off talking about how technology disrupts business models. The board does not want a technologist; they want a full-fledged board member who can service on audit, finance, and nominating committees.”

Once you are on a board, you will find that board discussions are very different from executive committee meetings. “Your job on the board is not just to ask questions,” Shurts says, because most of the time the EC will have good answers. Your job is to question those answers and to encourage senior management to think differently. “We are always asking, ‘Have you thought about it from this angle?’” he says. “The board dynamic is to dig into the issues, look at them from all angles, and talk about them in an intellectual, collaborative way.”

Shurts suggests that aspiring board members check out BoardProspects.com and Private Directors Association, inexpensive resources that provide education on board service and opportunities to submit your board bio, so that nominating committees can find you. 

Now is the time for CIOs to consider board service. Just as Sarbanes-Oxley mandated the need for certified financial experts, new cyber regulations will create demand for technology leaders on boards. 

“I see CIOs joining board all the time now,” says Shurts. “We are still underrepresented, but our opportunities are growing.” 

IT Leadership

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Florida-based Apogee Executive Advisors consultancy specializes in corporate governance, technology risk management, and public & private board service, among other areas, and when Myrna Soto, the company’s founder and CEO, offers insight on how best to communicate with, and present to, the board of directors, people, especially technology leaders, tend to benefit, especially if the ambition is to ultimately become board members themselves.

“I have presented in the boardroom many times as the reigning executive in a variety of roles, and now I have the opportunity to be on the other side of the table to assist technology leaders like CIOs and CTOs who may be invited into the board to present,” says Soto, who has had many distinctions as a founder, CEO, board member, investor, former CIO and former CISO, among others. “The boardroom is becoming savvier to the impact that technology has on the business’ strategic outcomes, so CIOs and other tech leaders have the opportunity to demonstrate how impactful their work is to lead the technology, strategy, implementation, and execution for the company. And board members will want to understand the priorities, needs to endorse certain investments, and strategic advantages, whether it’s reinventing the delivery of a product or a service, or how data is used analytically for marketing purposes. At a macro level, board members also understand it’s hard for any industry or company not to be reliant on technology, and that gives a superior platform for technology leaders to be innovative and influential members of the management team in the boardroom.”

Building on that, as the expression goes, “Those who fail to prepare, prepare to fail.” Not only do those presenting to the board need to glean from previous presentations what level of detail the board understands about the technology landscape for the company, but boards expect CIOs to be up to date and aware of what technology initiatives are underway at competing companies, so any presentation has to thoroughly account for that as well. More often than not, says Soto, members serve on other boards so they’ll have many perspectives of different companies and different industries. “More often than not, they may make comparisons, so it’s important to be able to be in a position to respond,” she says. “It’s important to project confidence to not only know what is pertinent to your company, but how to be best positioned to succeed and execute differently than the competition.”

Soto recently spoke with John Gallant, enterprise consulting director with Foundry, about the evolving nature of how CIOs and technology leaders engage with the board of directors, and the tools needed to achieve best outcomes.

Here are some edited excerpts of that conversation. Watch the full video below for more insights.

On leveraging the board: Every boardroom is not equal. And when we say they are more tech-savvy, that comes with gradients. There are still board members, however, who aren’t technology experts or have the experience or depth to understand some challenges when it comes to technology adoption and changes. That’s not a criticism, but this is where CIOs and other technology leaders invited in the boardroom need to hone in on a skill to be able to present technical concepts in a very strategically placed business acumen so board members can make those connections. In some cases, the leader has an opportunity to either validate an assumption a board member has or change a perspective of how impactful a certain technology may or may not be. One of my favorites is being able to educate the board at the right level, whether they’re evolving an innovative platform or doing a large-scale refresh.

On preparing to present to the board: Study your board members. Get to know their backgrounds. It’s important to make certain connections to their experience and the content you’re providing so it allows them to connect the dots. So if you have a board member who used to be a leader in technology, that would be a great opportunity to build a relationship and a rapport. Be careful not to alienate board members either. Sometimes I’ve seen people who focus on one or two because they have a comfort level with the topic, or they believe their experience will allow them to understand it better, forgetting that some others may not follow as closely. That is a strong recipe for not getting invited back. You want to be a frequent presenter. And as a CIO, you’re running your own technology organization within an organization, which has many different functional components. Chances are you’re managing a balance sheet, so think of the financially related terms that will be important. Board member focus is about generating shareholder value, growth, and preserving the position of an organization, so you want to make those connections when you present. Put it all in highly strategic business terms.

On the dos and don’ts for CIOs: We live and breathe our profession and sometimes we have to stop using acronyms and technical terms, which are part of our day-to-day language managing technology teams. But be careful not to bring that into the boardroom. If you catch yourself, offer a nugget of knowledge. If you say, “ERP,” what does ERP really mean? You get an opportunity to educate the board without sounding condescending. Don’t assume your audience has the layer of detail that would make some of the concepts you present obvious. A lot of times, board members will just ask, “What did you mean by that?” and you have the opportunity to course correct. But if you have a chance to do it naturally, and provide that layer of perspective, it goes a long way. Also, if your corporate culture allows, it’s always wonderful to build relationships with board members outside the boardroom. If you have an opportunity, maybe one or two presentations in, have a sidebar conversation. Take advantage and what you’ll find is they end up becoming a good sounding board as you prepare for future presentations.

On becoming board members: What is important for CIOs to get an understanding about is the function of the board, why it exists, and its practices and principles of governance. It may sound obvious, but being able to execute on consent actions and formulate a consensus around decisions being made is important to understand. When you serve in the boardroom, you don’t work for the company, you’re not an employee of the company, but you represent the interests of shareholders and investors in the boardroom. Obviously, their goal is to help with strategic vision, to opine and lean on strategies and to approve large-scale investments and changes for the company. That all comes with a ton of governance principles.

CIO, IT Leadership

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Board directors like Jean Holley can be a CIO’s best friend or worst nightmare. A former CIO herself, Holley always reaches out to the CIO before board meetings to offer her advice on how to handle inevitable questions. “It’s amazing how many times they don’t take me up on it,” Holley says.

These CIOs, especially those new to the role, often come off as overly techie, out of touch with the business, or worse, out of their depth in the position, she says. On three different boards, directors have asked Holley if the company chose the right CIO, and three times her answer was no. Don’t be that CIO.

CIOs hold more influence than ever in the boardroom. The CEO and board may steer the ship, but they’re relying on the CIO’s radar to see what’s coming. Preparation is key and can make or break the relationship. Get ready for these questions and curveballs.

First, know your audience

Before meeting the board for the first time, it’s important to research the background of each board member and the other boards they’re on, says Gary Cantrell, former CIO and senior vice president of IT at manufacturing company Jabil, who spoke with his board quarterly.

“Most of the board members aren’t deeply versed in IT, but they know what’s important from reading the news or from what they’ve learned from other boards that they sit on,” Cantrell says. “If you follow those companies on your feed and read up on an incident before you get in front of the board, you can answer questions easy enough. If not, you have to dance as you go.”

1. ‘Are we vulnerable to current cyber threats?’

Cybersecurity remains a top board concern, especially given the war in Ukraine and ongoing global unrest. CIOs should always prepare for this loaded question without giving doomsday predictions or appearing overconfident.

“Prepared for cyber questions in the context of risk,” says Jay Ferro, chief information and technology officer at Clario. “Explain that the likelihood of a risk X happening is very low, but the impact could be high, so here’s what we’re doing to mitigate it,” Ferro says. “Have a conversation about where you aren’t as secure, too, but follow immediately with how you’re getting better, what your plan is, and how they can hold you accountable for getting better.”

Here, CIOs can help the board see improvement by reusing and updating performance graphs and charts that were presented at previous board meetings, so directors can see progress, he adds.

Vulnerability isn’t the only cyber-related question CIOs should be prepared to address. Ferro says he was put on the spot many times with the question, “Are we spending enough on cybersecurity?”

“You always want to spend more, but your CEO is in the room, and you have to be very careful about your answer,” Ferro says. “You don’t want to throw your CEO under the bus.”

On the flip side, the current economic climate has some boards asking, “Can you do this more cheaply?” says Alexander Lowry, host of the podcast “Boardroom Bound.” Typically the answer is no if the company wants to remain well-defended or needs to retain talent, he says. “Time, cost, and quality form the triangle of balance,” he adds, and CIOs must explain the importance of all three factors.

Directors who sit on several boards may also inquire about the security chain of command in the organization, Holley says. Because of this, CIOs are often asked, “Should the CISO report to the CIO or to someone else?”

“About 90% of CIOs will say yes, I want it,” Holley says. “But if you’re a technology-based company and you develop technology for a living or maybe in the security space, it should not be under the CIO. The board prefers the checks and balances of two different leaders in this case, she says.

2. ‘Are we investing in the right technology that aligns with our strategy?’

The board wants assurances that the CIO has command of tech investments tied to corporate strategy. “Demystify that connection,” Ferro says. “Show how those investments tie to the bigger picture and show immediate return as much as you can.”

Global CIO and CDO Anupam Khare tries to educate the board of manufacturer Oshkosh Corp. in his presentations. “My slide deck is largely in the context of the business so you can see the benefit first and the technology later. That creates curiosity about how this technology creates value,” Khare says. “When we say, ‘This project or technology has created this operating income impact on the business,’ that’s the hook. Then I explain the driver for that impact, and that leads to a better understanding of how the technology works.”

Board members may also come in with technology suggestions of their own that they hear about from competitors or from other boards they’re on. So CIOs should also be prepared to answer the question, “Should we be using the same technology as company X?”

Avoid the urge to break out technical jargon to explain the merits of new cloud platforms, customer-facing apps, or Slack as a communication tool, and “answer that question from a business context, not from a technology context,” Holley says. “[The answer] depends on how the business is doing and where you are competitively. Are you trying to be a leader or a fast follower” in the digital space?

It’s also wise to prepare a list of three areas that you would invest in if capital were available, Holley says. “That’s a key question to always have a good answer to in case the business is throwing off more cash or somebody isn’t spending as much capital,” she says. “For instance, if we throw $5 million now at this active project, we could pull in this ROI in six months. It may not be IT-related either. If we’re looking to pull in that acquisition in Q1 of next year, why don’t we pull it in Q4 this year because people have the bandwidth.”

Holley had a similar short list of projects to slow or stop if the business was contracting or the company had a rough quarter and needed to pull back. Top contenders were projects where the business is not engaging enough, or those the business can’t bring the right head count to make it move faster, she says.

3. ‘How are you retaining and attracting tech talent?’

Board members read about a worldwide IT talent shortage and they’re asking CIOs what they’re doing to develop talent in-house, and how they’re retaining workers, Cantrell says. They’re also asking about attrition rates and how you’re attracting new talent. Are you only offering higher salaries or other perks?

4. ‘Should we be looking to automation to fill hiring gaps?’

Without enough qualified workers, some board members may also ask about automation or robotics as an alternative, Lowry says. “The question might be, ‘Since we can’t get enough human beings to do these things anyway, could we do it more efficiently with automation? Not just today, but for the medium or long term would it make the organization more resilient or help us operate more cheaply?’” CIOs should prepare a list of what parts of the business could be or should be automated, Lowry says.

5. ‘How are you cultivating the most diverse, equitable, and inclusive tech team?’

With the increasing emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a key workplace objective and productivity driver, CIOs should also be prepared to describe their DEI initiatives, including how they are going about sourcing for this talent, such as partnerships with organizations that can help, Ferro says.

These types of corporate responsibility topics may also include sustainability questions, he adds. “What are you doing to run a more sustainable technology organization — whether that’s reducing your data center footprint or moving to the cloud,” he says.

6. ‘What should we be concerned about that’s not on our radar?’

The board is relying on your radar to help them shape business strategy. A crisp top-three list should start things off. “This is not an invitation to go apocalyptic or to overtalk or overexplain,” Holley says.

“I would always pre-think an answer internally and externally,” Holley says. “I start with something like, ‘Externally there’s an opportunity to grow revenue by x%.’ Or I would ask, ‘Do you know what our competitors are doing?’ And I would expand on that. Or I would start with, ‘The competitor we don’t even see today is probably doing this.’”

Instead of elaborating on each idea, she would follow up with, “Would you like to know more?” The board chair or a committee chair would usually say yes or want to follow up at a later time.

Dealing with the unexpected

If any question comes out of left field that you aren’t prepared to answer, never make up the answer, Ferro says. “Be prepared to say, ‘I would like to come back to you on that, or just say, ‘That’s a great question. Generally, it’s on our radar. Let’s do a separate call on that.’”

Preparation can pay off big time, Cantrell says. “It’s always the first impression. If you can get off on a good foot in the first three meetings, life gets a lot easier. If not, it gets to be a challenge.”

CIO, IT Leadership