Board Recruitment Series: Questions to Consider (Part 1 of 4)

Dear Board Doc: My board is anticipating a couple of retirements over the next two years, but we have not done any recruiting for several years and have no formal strategy around succession planning. Especially with the challenges around the COVID pandemic, we are wondering what fund boards are doing these days to fill vacancies on the board?

Thinking ahead is to your advantage as it will allow your board to have adequate time to explore options and find highly qualified candidates to fill the anticipated vacancies.  As you consider how to conduct your search, you might want to think about:

• Cost: How much the board is prepared to spend on recruitment activities?
• Time: How quickly would your board the board like to complete its search, and how much time do your board colleagues have to dedicate to recruitment?
• Skill: How does your board plan to evaluate potential candidates against your board’s criteria, and for fit within the board’s personality?
• Size and quality of your board’s personal networks: How many contacts does your board have that may either be candidates themselves or who may be able to connect you with the type of candidates you’d like to see?

The answers to these questions will help your board determine how best to conduct your candidate search, whether it is through a search firm or your own personal contacts. 


Future posts will explore executive search firms, conducting a search through your personal contacts, and general ideas to continually work to build your personal networks.