Director Recruitment

Strategic director recruitment is one of the most powerful levers for board effectiveness and adaptability. Boards that intentionally cultivate a strategically aligned mix of capabilities, backgrounds, industries, and perspectives are better equipped to navigate the competing demands of their shareholders and other stakeholders. 

Yet recruitment is often treated as a short-term reaction to vacancies rather than an opportunity to future-proof the board. Activists and institutional investors increasingly evaluate whether board composition reflects the skills necessary for long-term value creation, while directors’ oversight responsibilities continue to expand into emerging areas, such as AI, cybersecurity, and geopolitical risk.

For many boards, there is a disconnect between intent, actual readiness, and execution in the recruitment of directors. As one director noted, “Most boards start too late. A fully functioning board is discussing board recruitment all the time.” Survey data reinforces this challenge, with 52 percent of boards acknowledging the need for a proactive assessment of board composition, yet allowing competing priorities to bring precedence. Nineteen percent of boards say it is not a priority.

This Director Essentials report  provides guidance to help boards optimize their director recruitment processes by adopting a forward-looking and strategy-driven approach reflected in five key steps. A working group of seasoned directors and a legal expert, input from other governance experts, and NACD research shaped the recommendations in this report. Quotes from the contributors are presented throughout this report in italics and without attribution.