Entrepreneur, board member and corporate governance expert, not to mention a former three-time CEO, Betsy Atkins is a very smart, very accomplished, very successful woman. She shares her life lessons with Susan Armstrong.

As directors think through the learnable takeaways from the collapse of SVB, there are a couple of very clear learnings for me, and I am sure for all of us. We all need to spend more time on enterprise risk management. Identify...

The Covid-19 pandemic was a catalyst for huge change in the way we all live and work. Many companies had to quickly pivot to a work from home model. This resulted in an acceleration of technology adoption / digital transformation by 5-10...

Each and every one of us has a unique set of experiences, skills, and values that shape how we approach the world in which we live and work—how we operate both personally and professionally. That is what you want to communicate in...

As a director who has often come in after a major corporate crisis to clean up and reinvigorate the board. I share a few thoughts. After a crises boards realize they need to embrace change to mitigate further corporate vulnerability. I think...

Reciprocity is an important concept in all aspects of life, but it’s one that is often undervalued, overlooked, or scorned in the context of business. However, many people, including us, have found a great degree of success in their careers by using...

The role of the board has expanded significantly from the 1970’s traditionally less engaged oversight model where directors provided “rubber stamping” of management recommendations. A modern board must be a competitive asset and an accelerant for the business. Directors must not only...

Leading company’s in a recession requires grit, perseverance, and determination coupled with IQ/EQ and real time problem solving skills. As boards look to coach their CEOs and executive leadership teams, I share a few practical / actionable ideas along with a philosophy...

Like many of you I am watching the Twitter saga unfold. In April it was announced that Twitter had agreed to sell itself to Elon Musk in roughly $44B deal. On Friday July 8Th Musk announced he was pulling out of the agreement...

The nature of CEO communication on social topics over the last two years has significantly changed. The event of George Floyds death and emerging movement of Black Lives Matter was a major catalyst for change following on the heels of the business...

The pandemic resulted in a massive shift in the culture of work with many employees dubbing working from home as “the new norm”. Companies had to be nimble in getting a workforce set up with the proper tools and procedures to work...

The retention of human capital is one of the biggest priorities for boards this coming year. Leadership is laser focused on this issue and it has been a hot topic in the press with headline grabbing statements such as “the great resignation”....

As directors look to the future, we know one of the most important initiatives is the need to tech-enable and digitize our company’s products and service offerings. If Directors are to truly provide thoughtful advice and governance to our respective companies as...

Directors Consider the Future of Work As the dialogue around “return to work” heats up and the likes of Twitter and JPMorgan make headlines for their respective approaches, companies must not lose sight of the task at hand: critical decisions must be made about the...

In the “next gen” leaders of Gen Z and millennial led companies, co-CEOs are starting to emerge more frequently Typically, in public companies a co-CEO structure is what a board does when they may not want to clarify leadership, cannot make a...

Nurturing a culture of health and wellness will result in higher productivity from your employees and will also enable you to attract and retain the best talent. The coronavirus pandemic has been the catalyst for a lot of discussions around the need...

Bezos preaches a “Day 1” mentality of a new startup to stay relevant and innovative. Amazon’s customer obsession drives them to release products and services before the consumer knows they want it. Amazon keeps meetings small and differentiates their decisions into Type...

For advice on how to catch up to the future of work—and do it well—consider the timeless insights of the masters of management theory. There’s a case to be made that Covid-19 has caused the future to accelerate by 5 to 7...

In these challenging times, there are a few suggestions to help boards and CEOs leading companies to help ensure their survival. Shift the Mindset to Crisis Mode First, the CEO has to shift their mindset from being a visionary peace-time growth-focused CEO to become...

Building a board environment that enables debate, discussion, and a leadership style that allows for possible disagreement or ideas to discuss tradeoffs allows you to get the best ideas what leads to the best long-term success in a company. Naturally you get...

Where do million-dollar ideas come from? How do you navigate an organization entering untested, emerging domains? What are effective ways to deal with being the first woman at the table? Women looking to advance their careers recently gathered at Nasdaq’s MarketSite to...

Whether you are a seasoned business veteran or a newly minted employee entering the workforce, there are some basic tips to keep in mind that will help you differentiate yourself as you continuously work to cultivate your personal brand. Here are my...

A company wins the hearts and minds of its employees and customers based on the middle of the organization.  Large by numbers and impact, it drives the day to day of everything in product, customers, support, sales, etc.  The middle deals with...

Board meetings can be a positive part of your company strategy and corporate governance.  Here’s how to make the most of them and your board. Before the Board Meeting A short telephone call to each board member a week or so before...

By: Silvia Davi Betsy Atkins is a 3-time CEO and serial entrepreneur and founder of Baja Corporation. She has co-founded enterprise software companies in multiple industries including energy, healthcare and networking. She is an expert at scaling companies through hyper growth and...

By: Lindsay Frost Board directors spend an average of 248 hours per year on board-related matters, according to the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), and this time commitment is only increasing as directors’ responsibilities expand to areas such as strategy and shareholder relations...

I recently read Kim Scott's New York Times Bestseller, Radical Candor, and I feel it should be required reading for anyone who aspires to be a great leader and colleague. The book offers actionable insights based on Scott's experiences building and leading...

Microsoft is on it! On April 15th CNBC published an article detailing how Microsoft responded quickly and efficiently after an email was shared throughout the company about workers complaining about harassment and mistreatment in the workplace. Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella addressed the...

As Americans, we’re used to thinking about brands in a consumer context—the power of a name to differentiate a product or company in its customer’s minds. We all know brands that excel at conjuring positive feelings that forge powerful connections with customers,...

Start by identifying what's important to you. You should identify what you stand for as that is the basis for your personal brand. What are your key messages that you want someone to know about the value that you would add to...

Netflix NFLX (NASDAQ), has created an unique new format for board governance that I read about on the Stanford Closer Look Series.  David Larker and Brian Tayan detail out the new way that Netflix is engaging their board to guide the strategy of Netflix. The role...

Successful founders are inspirational leaders who come up with breakthrough business ideas which they are able to operationalize successfully in the market. We often see founder-led companies go through a maturity cycle as they keep their incredible hyper growth and execution culture...

By: Francine McKenna The Securities and Exchange Commission is between a rock and a hard place, experts say, in deciding what to do about what it told a judge on Tuesday is Elon Musk’s violation of the “clear and unambiguous” terms of a...

You’ve seen the antics on Twitter and late night radio and you wrote it off as an eccentric genius CEO. But unfortunately, it isn’t getting any better and Tesla isn’t Elon Musk’s personal hobby, it’s a public company.  Tesla has stakeholders; shareholders,...

More and more news stories are breaking about CEOs leaving their role amid accusations of ethics breaches and lack of integrity. Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance Chairman/CEO Carlos Ghosn has been charged over allegations that he failed to disclose close to $80 million in additional...

I met Lior Arussy at the CEO to CEO Event in New York City and I was struck by his ability to help companies embrace and navigate successful change initiatives.  He shared some of his insights with me and that prompted me...

Keys to surviving the creative destruction of the current business landscape The risks companies face today aren’t the same old risks of a competitor having a cheaper product or doing business in a third-world country. The key risk to a company is...

While there’s still along way to go before there’s gender equity in the nation’s boardrooms, women are making more and more progress each year. Sometimes, however, women need a bit more help if they’re looking to land their first board seat. If...

Are ads on Facebook, Google, and other platforms, worth it? By Betsy Atkins and Sally Hubbard Earlier this year, Procter & Gamble announced it cut its digital advertising budget by $200 million after putting pressure on social media companies to be more...

A new California law mandates gender diversity on corporate public boards, making it the first U.S. state to require female board members. Corporate governance expert Betsy Atkins and Nasdaq Stock Exchange President Nelson Griggs discuss what you need to know about the...

As a follow up to my previous blog post on how companies may embrace Environmental, Social and Governance issues I’m going to use Volvo Cars where I am a board member as an example and use case. Volvo has a significant, fulsome...

If there’s one thing corporate boards have heard a lot about over the last few years, it’s cybersecurity. In my engagements as a director and my work on governance issues, a day doesn’t go by without another briefing that tries to tell board...

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues should be a priority for Boards and management. The advantages of proactively tackling ESG issues are significant. A robust ESG program can open up access to large pools of capital, build a stronger corporate brand and...

Betsy Atkins, Baja Corporation CEO, and former Facebook adviser Mozelle Thompson discuss how they would handle the leadership crisis unraveling at Facebook.

The job of Facebook’s board is to oversee the company for long term growth and profitability. Part of that director’s job is anticipating risks and looking forward to future proof the company as the market and regulatory environment evolves. The first big...

Boards have historically used the standard Enterprise Risk Management approach for dealing with crisis. ERM was overseen by the Audit Committee. Typically ERM looked at things like disaster recovery from hurricanes and expanded to oversee areas such as cyber readiness. While these...

Aspiring women leaders gathered in New York City at Nasdaq's MarketSite last week to hear firsthand how successful women earned a seat at the table in some of America's most high profile public company boardrooms. They also heard how they too can...

Women executives discuss leadership lessons and opportunities for growth in the corporate boardroom NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ICR, a leading strategic communications and advisory firm, hosted an event in partnership with Nasdaq titled “Advancing Women Leaders in the Boardroom” on Tuesday, October 9, at...

Serial entrepreneur and board member @Betsy_Atkins shares some good news! "The time has never been better to get on a board as a woman." Listen for lessons learned & get inspired to be courageous like Betsy!

Former SEC enforcement attorney Alma Angotti and Baja Corporation CEO Betsy Atkins discuss Tesla CEO Elon Musk potentially jeopardizing his settlement with the SEC after mocking them as the "Shortseller Enrichment Commission."

It's been just eight months since Matt Maddox, CEO of Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN), took the reins of the company following the abrupt departure of founder Steve Wynn following sexual misconduct allegations. During that short time, the company's board and leadership team...

Betsy Atkins, CEO of Baja Corp., board member at Wynn Resorts and Volvo Cars and Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire, who's on the board of the National Association of Women Business Owners in California, debate a controversial new California law that requires companies to have...

ALLEGATIONS OF MISCONDUCT, fraud and corruption are everywhere lately, with nearly every news cycle surfacing a tale that seems to bear investigation. Just last month, charges of sexual misconduct by CBS CEO Les Moonves surfaced, coming shortly on the heels of the news...

As a veteran member of more than 20 corporate boards, including Volvo Car AB and Wynn Resorts Ltd., I hope that the bill that requires major companies based in California to put female directors on their boards (“State Pushes for Women on...

By John D. Stoll California Gov. Jerry Brown has until the end of September to sign legislation that would require public companies based in the state to put a certain number of female directors on their boards. Before picking up the pen, he should...

by Brooke Fox FT California is due to become the first US state to impose a quota for the inclusion of women on the boards of public companies headquartered there. A bill requiring at least one woman on every public company board...

The SEC is in a difficult quandary as it investigates the ill-advised tweet BY BETSY ATKINS Elon Musk’s tweet first, think later approach may suit his daring personality. But casually tweeting that he had “funding secured” to take a $50bn public company...

By Eve Tahmincioglu Can three women directors bring a “fresh” perspective? D&B sits down with one of the newly minted female board members, Betsy Atkins. Wynn Resorts CEO and chairman Steve Wynn stepped down in February following sexual misconduct allegations. While the casino mogul...

Betsy Atkins - author of Behind Boardroom Doors. She currently serves on 4 public company boards including Cognizant, as well as the board of privately held Volvo Cars. She'll discuss Tesla and CBS with Jen Rogers.

Betsy Atkins, board member at Volvo and author of "Behind the Boardroom Doors," discusses corporate governance issues at Tesla Inc., CBS Corp., and Intel Corp. She speaks on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas." (Source: Bloomberg)

Betsy Atkins, Corporate Governance Expert and board member at Wynn Resorts, Inc. and Volvo Cars gives a board member view of Elon Musk tweeting that he plans to take Tesla private at $420 a share.

By Scott Chase The competition for talent may drive diversity in the workforce and the boardroom. That was the assertion by Deborah DeHaas, vice chairman and national managing partner for the Center for Board Effectiveness at Deloitte, who spoke in May at...

The latest Tesla kerfuffle is an indication of what can happen when you have an iconic, larger than life entrepreneur, leading a public company whose corporate governance checks and balances haven’t caught up with public company standards and norms. The whistle blower...

Women are gaining more seats in U.S. boardrooms, though not necessarily those with the most power. In the first five months of 2018, women accounted for 248, or 31%, of new board directors at the country’s 3,000 biggest publicly traded companies, according to an analysis...

How regularly should the board be assessing the kind of leadership it needs currently and in the future? At a minimum, boards need to think about what type of leadership the company needs on an annual basis. The velocity of change is...

Veteran board member Betsy Atkins presents a compelling argument for proactively addressing ESG issues through formal corporate governance policies. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues should be a top concern of corporate management and boards. There was a time when a public...

Serving as a corporate board member, particularly for a public company, seems like an intimidating job. Good -- it should seem intimidating, in a way that drives us to be better fiduciaries. But the role of corporate director is also a fairly...

What is the role of the board in keeping companies relevant? What is a "dinosaur" board and why should you avoid one at all costs? How can boards proactively prepare for activists? Are we entering a new era for boards? During a...

By Eve Tahmincioglu Wynn Resorts CEO and Chairman Steve Wynn stepped down in February following sexual misconduct allegations. While the casino mogul has denied the charges, the company he founded has been dealing with the aftermath. One recent move the new CEO...

Companies need a digital transformational leader By Betsy Atkins In my role with technology companies (which today means all companies), I’ve seen a turbocharged evolution hit the role of the chief information officer. Just within the past 12-18 months, the role of...

What boards should focus on when working with tech leaders. The dialogue between corporate chief information officers and the boards of directors can be both enlightening and frustrating — often at the same time. The two of us have seen many boardroom...

As an executive search expert with over 30 years of experience in the field, I’ve seen a lot of changes in the boardroom. From how boards operate to who is around the table, serving on the board is a different experience now...

A high-stakes game of chicken is being played out in Everett, and the newly expanded board of Wynn Resorts may be the key to the fate of the $2.5 billion project. On one side is the Wynn Resorts executive team, sans the...

When it comes to tech, 20 years can seem more like 200. Back in 1998, when the Miami Herald launched its first ever Business Plan Challenge, Miami had no real startup community. Most of that year's winners — and those from many...

How can boards diversify to manage change? Is the CEO Pay Ratio rule going to be effective? When should the CEO and Chairman of the Board roles be separate? During a wide-ranging and informative interview, veteran board member and venture capitalist Betsy...

Our next guest is a former CEO and experienced corporate director with candid and practical advice for those who serve on the boards of big, complex enterprises. Her book is 'Behind Boardroom Doors' - Betsy Atkins joins us.

Activist and institutional investors have catapulted environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards into the mainstream, pushing companies on issues ranging from sustainability and disclosure practices to gender diversity and working conditions. What do directors need to know about the growing momentum behind...

Betsy Atkins, three-time CEO, corporate governance expert, and founder of Baja Corporation recently sat down with Nasdaq’s Nelson Griggs to discuss advice to CEOs for refreshing the board. Atkins covers selecting the right expertise and experience in new board members, and shares...

Betsy Atkins comments on recent news at United Airlines and Toys R Us, the potential Qualcomm/Broadcom merger, and the Theranos fraud news in corporate America.

How should boards deal with sexual harassment issues? What is the best way to protect a company from cybersecurity threats? What is it really going to take to improve diversity in the boardroom? Why does every company need a digital director and...

Betsy Atkins shares her thoughts on diversity of thought and it's role in corporate success.

With the death of a dog in flight, it may be time for the United Airlines board to revisit their brand’s values and vision, and the importance of living up to them. United’s customer service curse struck again last week with the...

Toys R Us announces the closing of all their brick and mortar stores and the releasing of 33,000 employees ending a 70 year run as America's Toy Store. Betsy Atkins comments on what happened and how your retail company can avoid the...

Governance Expert Betsy Atkins shares her thoughts on where United went wrong and what they need to do to change their broken corporate culture.

Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, interviews Betsy Atkins, author of "Behind Boardroom Doors: Lessons of a Corporate Director," on "A Closer Look With Arthur Levitt."[audio mp3="https://betsyatkins.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/BLM6359828979.mp3"][/audio]

By Betsy Atkins, Entrepreneur, Three-Time CEO and The ExecRanks Board Member Over the past 20 years, I’ve served on almost 30 boards for both private and public, including financial services, technology, pharma, hospitality, retailing and manufacturing. In this time, I’ve learned two...

In the past two decades, corporate boardrooms have undergone a rapid pace of change heretofore unseen in the history of American business. The structure of the boardroom itself has changed following legislation and regulation from Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank, and advancements brought upon...

When billionaire hedge fund manager Nelson Peltz fought for a seat on Procter & Gamble’s board this past October, CEOs watching the drama unfold could have been forgiven for cheering P&G on from the sidelines. In recent years, corporate boards, and CEOs...

Digital technology can offer rich rewards for your board. Artificial intelligence, Big Data, virtual reality, cybersecurity, drone delivery, marketing automation, the Internet of Things… all of these are shifting, intersecting, and liberating retail in unforeseen ways, and directors with vitae in these...

Steve Wynn is out at Wynn Resorts, but the company he founded and its board of directors are still under scrutiny. Wynn and the company's nine remaining board members were hit with a shareholder lawsuit on Tuesday afternoon. The complaint claims the...

by Kevin Gale, Editor Last week, I wrote a blog about how the selection of a new CEO is sparking yet another controversy at Broward Health. One issue is that Beverly Capasso, the interim CEO who is being given the permanent job,...

Nelson Griggs, President of Nasdaq spoke with Betsy Atkins, three-time CEO and founder of Baja Corporation, who shared insights on running an effective board meeting, managing through change, and leveraging executive sessions.

Elon Musk, a charismatic entrepreneur, is nothing if not audacious. Over the past decade, he’s worked to serially reinvent the online payments, aerospace and solar power industries, and has been compared to Marvel’s Iron Man genius/zillionaire Tony Stark. As CEO of Tesla...

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE NEW What do new CEOs and CEOs new to working with a board of directors need to know to engage with their board members effectively? Boardroom insider Betsy Atkins shares some ideas. As a CEO working with...

IT HAD ALL THE DRAMA of an Oliver Stone remake of his 1987 movie, Wall Street. The tall, prematurely white haired William A. Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager, bought 8.3 percent of the shares of ADP, a $50 billion payroll-processing company...

With activism on the rise and today’s business environment growing ever-more complex, board refreshment has become a critical piece of the governance puzzle. Companies that fail to align board composition with their long-term strategy will expose themselves to greater risk in the...

Betsy Atkins, Baja Corp CEO and Volvo Cars board member and David Kreutzer, Heritage Foundation senior research fellow, discuss Telsa CEO Elon Musk's pay plan through stocks and whether it's good for the company's shareholders. CNBC's Phil LeBeau weighs in.

Host: TK Kerstetter Guest: Betsy Atkins, Board Veteran & Director of Multiple Boards The past few years have provided corporate boards with several crisis scenarios to learn from. While incidents like United Airlines, Equifax and HealthSouth each stem from a different root...

By Kim S. Nash, Joann S. Lublin and Anna Maria Andriotis Equifax breach triggered broad reassessment of cybersecurity oversight, experts say Corporate boards are seeking greater insight into cybersecurity risks in the aftermath of the recent breach at Equifax Inc. The hacking attack on the credit-reporting...

Pop-up stores, with their temporary, mobile, high-traffic approach, let both mainline and new retailers test products, messages, and locations with low cost and high sales per square foot potential. This new $10 billion segment delivers for shoppers seeking seasonal, trendy, and unique...

What should your board of directors do to kick off the New Year? Start by asking yourself a few tough questions (before your investors do) and take a close look at what your board diversity and next-gen company leadership. You have to...

Book Review by Kevin Gale, Editor in Chief Betsy Atkins is sharing her decades of experience as a corporate director in the third edition of the instructive and engrossing book, Behind Boardroom Doors: Lessons of a Corporate Director. SFBW readers may be...

This is the second part of a two-part series. You can read part one here on this website as well. Though the job of a corporate board member has never been easy, show special sympathy for anyone serving as a retailing director...

According to Betsy Atkins Technology is disrupting virtually every industry in some way, and a business case for digital literacy on the board is emerging. In this post, veteran board director Betsy Atkins shares five ways companies can raise their boards' digital...

Of the many industries being turned inside out by digital transformation, retailing may face the most radical change. However, it's also the industry with the greatest number of breathtaking new opportunities for success. In this two-part article, I survey the new digital...

Though the job of a corporate board member has never been easy, show special sympathy for anyone serving as a retailing director over the past few years. The traditional board concerns of retail and measures of success – profit margins, inventory turnover,...

Technology is disrupting virtually every industry in some way, and a business case for digital literacy on the board is emerging. In this post, veteran board director Betsy Atkins shares five ways companies can raise their boards' digital IQ. There can be...

Over the past two decades, I’ve served on more than 25 corporate boards for U.S. and international companies, from health care and financial services to technology and retail. During this time, I’ve seen enormous change in corporate governance and the role of...

During two decades serving on more than 25 public boards, I’ve seen significant change to the way CEOs and boards engage and interact. When I first joined Lucent’s board about 20 years ago, board service was already evolving from a primarily oversight...

By Mitch Tuchman Research a company that you might want to own as an investment and you end up doing a lot of legwork, reading earnings releases, annual reports and outside analysis of the firm’s management and prospects. While it’s the CEO’s...

by Betsy Atkins Improve commercial performance while minimizing risk » Help protect companies from disruption that threatens shareholder value. » Identify opaque and manual processes that would benefit from a digital overhaul. » Direct IT to assess solutions to digitize these processes....

The past few decades have seen an explosion in the number of C-level roles at the top of global corporations.  Many of these are company specific, trendy or just confusing (how is a Chief Information Officer different from a Chief Knowledge Officer?). ...

They were the hot technology companies that helped shape America (and indeed, the world) by reinventing how we live and do business.  However, these corporations grew to dominate their sectors with a powerful fuel -- testosterone, building a powerful, clubby “bro culture”...

For all the clever coding involved, most ransomware delivers a very crude, but deadly message when it strikes your company. Important company files are locked, and may be destroyed, unless you pay a specific ransom amount, anonymously, with a short deadline. At...

SHAREHOLDER ACTIVISM in the US has increased greatly over the past decade,measured not only in scope and the pools of capital dedicated to it but also in sophistication and in the range of tactics employed. There is currently more than$120 billion in...

Probably the last thing Uber needs right now is to have anyone recount their recent setbacks, but the company’s quick, Icarus-like fall from grace tells us much about how tech companies going through hyper growth can go wrong.  By 2016, the ride-sharing...

Changing any corporate culture is a challenge, but I've found bringing diversity to the tech industry is even trickier. Fast-growth "unicorn" companies can quickly outgrow their founding venture-based startup corporate governance and find themselves facing crises with too few adults in the...

By Betsy Atkins   Groups that nurture and empower their gender diversity gain in revenues and adaptability In the past few weeks attempts have been made to clean up the working environment at the ride-hailing company Uber. Former US attorney-general Eric Holder...

An ever-increasing reliance on evolving technologies has left corporations vulnerable to cyber-attack and business model disruption. At the same time, enterprise risk management has landed squarely in the sights of institutional investors. As a result, boards must enhance their oversight of risk...

Four Board Tips for “Re-accommodating” Crisis If you serve on the corporate board of United Airlines, this week started badly and quickly grew far worse. The ugly incident of a passenger being dragged off an overbooked United flight not only showed a...

Framing Your Personal Brand for Board Opportunities by Betsy Atkins Private and public companies are starting to crystallize and articulate a new model for what they want from directors and advisors. Because companies are experiencing change at an accelerated rate and are...

A key role of the board is overseeing M&A. Technology M&A is having another record year and not showing any signs of slowing down. This year alone there have been 46 deals that were over $1 billion in value. While we’ve seen...

Nasdaq recently spoke with Betsy Atkins, a scholar of board behavior, veteran of 23 boards and 13 IPOs, and author of Behind Boardroom Doors, about her views on best practices for building an effective board. In addition to her board service, Ms....

We are in the throes of a digital industrial revolution, and every company must contend with the rapid pace of change. In this environment of innovation and upheaval, companies cannot just defend their products against this newest wave of competitors. Instead, they...

Some CEOs see a chill on investment and deal-making while others vow to stay the course. Corporate executives scrambled to assess the fallout from the U.K. vote to leave the European Union, with some CEOs saying the move would put a chill...

CIOs now scramble to determine impact on hiring, data management By Steven Norton and Kim S. Nash Jun 24, 2016 5:28 pm ET June 24, 2016 - London, GBR - The British nationals flag flies in front of the Big Ben clock...

Opinion By Betsy Atkins Betsy Atkins is a director at HD Supply, SL Green Realty, Schneider Electric and Volvo Car Corporation. She is also the CEO of venture capital firm Baja Corp. The digital industrial revolution has blurred business lines and altered what...

HERE ARE A FEW RULES OF THE ROAD FOR SUCCESSFULLY CONSTRUCTING AND LEADING YOUR BOARD. Boards, like any other group, perform best when they work with a leader who knows how to motivate, challenge, communicate, and set expectations to achieve objectives. Superlative...

Opinion Betsy Atkins Betsy Atkins is a director at Polycom, HD Supply, SL Green Realty and Schneider Electric. She is also the CEO of venture capital firm Baja Corp. Technology has created the age of the marketplace, which enables the maker of...

By Betsy Atkins Good news, as a member of a corporate board of directors, we in the boardroom have finally gotten the message on the severity of cybersecurity threats facing your company.  In my recent work with boards, I’ve seen how the...

By Betsy Atkins How is your board addressing technology? Strategic thinking is what is needed to use technology as a tool to drive your company’s business forward. As a member of four corporate boards and a venture investor with a strong interest...

Business operations today collect enormous amounts of data, but the idea of using technology to gather, crunch, and analyze this data in new ways for strategic advantage is fairly new. In a world where every business is a technology business, corporate boards...

By Kim S. Nash Mar 26, 2015 4:21 pm ET Corporate boards are struggling to keep up with the dizzying advance of technology, a force that is upending markets and models and is more than ever synonymous with business itself. Only a small...

Is It Time For a Board “Cyber-Security” Committee? By Betsy Atkins In December, Sony Pictures revealed that it has been the victim of a massive cyber attack, with sophisticated hackers raiding the company networks for coming movies, corporate financial and salary records,...

It may not be stilettos and poison rings, but new CEO/princes face real boardroom dangers. BY BETSY ATKINS In my career as a company founder, venture capitalist, and corporate director, I’ve met many business leaders, thinkers and doers. All have offered good...

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Dose of Leadership Podcast with Richard Rierson #79 – Betsy Atkins: Serial Entrepreneur, 3x Former CEO, Experienced Corporate Director [audio mp3="https://betsyatkins.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Betsy_Atkins_8-2-2013.mp3"][/audio]

By Betsy S. Atkins The term “macromyopia,” also known as Amara’s law, postulates that there is a tendency to overestimate the short-term impact of a new product or technology, and underestimate its long-term implications on the marketplace, and how competitors will react....

By Nancy Dahlberg ndahlberg@miamiherald.com The news that Leo Apotheker was replaced as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard after just 11 months at the helm shook up Betsy Atkins, an entrepreneur and former CEO three times over. “They had a courageous CEO who was...

Betsy Atkins When it comes to major corporate deal-making like mergers and acquisitions, boards of directors tend to act only in reaction. A third party or management presents an opportunity, or even a bid for a target company, and the board then...

By BETSY ATKINS Information governance — historically a bottom-up practice and now the responsibility of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) managers — has been pushing its way into boardrooms around the world. Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, The Basel II accords and similar regulations have triggered this trend. ...

Public company directors know that our most important responsibility to the shareholders is succession planning and continuity of leadership to build and lead the enterprise. We are in a time of great market upheaval and pressure. This will require many corporations to...

We are in an economic upheaval and the oversight that the board provides during this time will influence the company for years ahead. We as board members need to be active in helping management focus on the opportunity that this market crisis...

No, if companies spend shareholder assets on unprofitable causes. By Betsy Atkins The concept of corporate social responsibility deserves to be challenged. It seems that political correctness has obfuscated the important business points. It is absolutely correct to expect that corporations should...

By Betsy Atkins Reprinted from Directors Monthly with permission of the publisher: the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) • 1133 21st Street, NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20036 • 202-775-0509 • www.nacdonline.org Compensation committees face a fundamental problem: Executive pay has...

As a three-time CEO and now director on a number of boards, I can attest that directors have learned a lot in recent years about hiring chief executives. For one thing, they’re trying harder to promote from within, rather than hiring charismatic,...

By: Betsy S. Atkins Veteran venture capitalist and corporate board member, Betsy Atkins advises that in a time when company management is under intense scrutiny, securing information takes on an added importance. Over the past year, information security has become one of...