Premised on the notion that effective board refreshment is positively correlated with corporate resilience and performance, “Board Monitor 2025: The quiet power of continuous board refreshment” from Heidrick & Struggles reports on the results of a recent global survey of CEOs and board members across company types regarding their companies’ approach to board refreshment.
For purposes of analyzing variations in perspectives and practices, respondents were grouped into three categories — strategic board refreshers, traditional board refreshers, and reactive board refreshers — based on whether they viewed and effected (as opposed to just viewed but not effected as a priority, or not viewed as a priority) board refreshment as a priority, with family-owned and PE-backed companies most commonly, and small public companies least commonly, categorized as strategic board refreshers.
Among other interesting insights, the results highlight the most fruitful board refreshment activities that strategic board refreshers undertake and how the three categories of companies respond differently to discrete events (such as a new corporate strategy, new board chair, new CEO) that may reasonably prompt a review of the board skills (capability) matrix.
The report includes recommendations to boards to enhance their board refreshment practices.