Kieran Moynihan

Managing Partner, Board Excellence

Board committees represent the ‘engine of the board’ and play a crucial role in its ability to excel for shareholders, employees and stakeholders.

A wise board chair once said to me that the real secret to the success of the best boards he has served on were exceptional, hard-working board committees who did the heavy lifting for the board. This work was undertaken quietly in the background, enabling the board to be highly strategic and excel for its shareholders, employees and stakeholders.

A key part of our board evaluation work is looking at the board committees. In recent years, we have seen the workload of committees increase significantly to the stage where many board directors spend considerably more time in committee meetings that board meetings. Boards are being challenged to increase their focus on key and emerging priorities such as culture, disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, ESG and employee engagement. This expansion translates to the board committees stepping up to oversee and support the executive team in these areas. 

Meanwhile the audit and remuneration committees have long been in a very bright spotlight as high-profile failures in financial oversight and scrutiny of executive pay continue to be focus areas for shareholders, employees, regulators and stakeholders.

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