Advancing Diversity in the Boardroom
Tips from Coco Brown, CEO of the Athena Alliance, Dominque Essig, Melody Koh, and Nick Rockwell about how to leverage your product and engineering experience for board seats, investor and advisory roles.
For those of you who have spoken with me about the Beyond Salons in the last six months, you’ve likely heard me express my desire to help women think about career growth beyond their operating role as a product or engineering leader.
On April 1st, 2019 Google Cloud in NYC generously hosted a Beyond Salon fireside chat with the Athena Alliance CEO, Coco Brown, an organization dedicated to advancing diversity in the boardroom. Dominique Essig, CPO at Jetblack, Nick Rockwell, CTO at the NY Times, and Melody Koh, Partner at Nextview Ventures also took the stage. Seventy-five attendees, mostly female Engineering and Product Leaders, gathered with intention.
Quite frankly, just sitting next to Coco inspired me! The Athena Alliance has made over 700 key connections between investment firms, CEOs and boards to top women, made over 400 presentations of women to boards, secured over 200 first interviews, deeply supported and coached over 200 top women.
Dominique, Nick, and Melody then discussed their paths from product and engineering into board seats, investor and advisory roles. They each provided visibility, inspiration, and insight from their experiences; an insider’s perspective of the rewards and nuances of such positions and how they got there.
Just a few takeaways from Dominique, Nick, Coco, and Melody:
Women on boards…
- Not having women in board seats is a structural problem, not a pipeline issue
- Since pre-series A boards are typically just founders and investors, they tend to be only men, since the majority of founders are still men
- When companies look for board members, they ask their investors for introductions. Women must be in these networks to be recommended
- Suggestions from the panel: get into the VC, PE, CEO networks and attend or speak at their events and create content to build your brand
- [Melody] “Think of yourself as a product” and become a thought leader to increase the chance your name comes up f when a board search happens
How to leverage your product or engineering background to open up new doors…
- A common theme from audience Q&A: women in the room feel like they’re confined to one vertical and want advice on how to expand their expertise
- [Melody] Many VCs want to meet senior operators because eventually, they’ll be founders of companies VCs want to invest in
- Women in product/eng need to think and talk about themselves as an “overall steward of business” rather than a “woman in product/eng.”
- Executive recruiters and talent partners at VC’s are key people to know, regardless if you’re looking for a new job. They can help network and advocate for you if they understand your goals.
Traditional vs. modern boards…
- Traditional boards often focus only on ensuring the company is compliant; modern companies look for board members with direct tech and product experience [Coco] because “companies more often fail because the tech or product fails”than a lack of compliance.
- Boards are becoming responsible for more than just the CEO, they’re accountable for the performance of the company, and thus they build relationships with entire exec team — necessary for women in exec roles to be involved with the board to gain knowledge.
How do you select which companies to advise? Do they find you, or do you find them?
- [Dominique] “Always take the phone call!’
- [Dominique] I can’t work at a company just for a paycheck. I need to be passionate about the problem.”
- [Melody] “Are these problems, teams, and founders I want to spend time with?
- [Nick] Work with/advise companies that you’re passionate about and say no to the rest — your time is precious
- [Nick] I’m “intrinsically motivated by natural curiosity.”
- [Nick] “Think of yourself as an investor.”
Coco demystified the board room. She helped our audience understand how they can leverage their skills in product and engineering to open new doors and get recognized for boards. We learned how the needs of the modern boardroom are changing, and why things are different today than it was just ten years ago. She broke down the differences between board seats, members, observers, committee members, and board advisors. Coco went on to explain what boards look for based on the stage of the company, or whether or not they are a public or private company. We talked about money, obvi. She gave us the lowdown on how are people are typically compensated on boards.
To learn more, go to www.athenaalliance.org. You can sponsor a woman in your company, or don’t wait for someone to sponsor you. Lean in, and sponsor yourself!
Many thanks to our guest speakers, Riviera Partners, Tejpaul Bhatia & Google Cloud for sponsoring this impactful event, and to Annie Ly and Julia Rudlin, our Beyond committee members who generously donate their time to help make the Beyond Salons a success.
