Notes from the Boardroom, vol. 3
Editor’s note:“Notes from the Boardroom” is a series of blogs from ISACA Board Chair John De Santis providing transparency, context and perspective on how the ISACA board is carrying out its governance responsibilities.
Over the years, I’ve been very committed to leadership development. Many of my subordinates have gone on to become CEOs and board members themselves at different organizations. Helping colleagues develop into leaders at the highest level generates a lasting impact and hopefully inspires others to do the same. Imagine my delight to having gotten the support of your board to introduce a special program to help the most promising leaders of ISACA to increase their knowledge and skill set, and to prepare them for even more opportunity.
When I first joined the ISACA global board, one of my early observations was the steep learning curve my colleagues had to endure (particularly those who came to the board from within ISACA) as they grappled with issues and grasped the scope and complexity of an organization that operates at the scale of ISACA. While they clearly understood the needs of the members, were familiar with the dynamics of chapters and the trends within their professional domain, and were extremely smart and hardworking, many were unfamiliar with the breadth of financial oversight, the broad scope of functional areas managed within ISACA, the techniques and finesse required to “stick their noses in, but keep their hands out,” and the nuanced methodology on how to hold a CEO accountable for performance in a responsible way – that is, they were unfamiliar with the best practices required of a fiduciary board of directors of a $100 million association.
ISACA has many opportunities for the recognition of excellence, and many avenues for training and sharpening our skills, but the one area where there seemed to be a void was in training and preparing our leaders for what could happen – what they could aspire to – after they’ve checked all the boxes of chapter leadership.
Taking a big step in closing that gap, we launched the Chair’s Fellowship Program. This is an investment we are making in select members which aims to foster the personal and professional development of our most promising leaders.
The program has three main goals:
- Identify and Prepare: Identify and equip experienced members for fiduciary board roles in various corporate or association settings.
- Train and Network: Offer the essential training, mentoring and networking to prepare candidates for board responsibilities.
- Provide Project Opportunities: Provide participants opportunities to collaborate on projects with the CEO and the Board of Directors to showcase their capabilities.
While the program does not guarantee a path to an ISACA global board director position, it provides an opportunity for awardees to develop fiduciary board leadership skills and learn best practices for a high-performing board.
For this year, the first cohort awarded this Fellowship were the finalists for the board seat that opened with the retirement from the board of General Greg Touhill. The final selection was the outstanding and well-qualified Jamie Norton from Australia, yet we also had five additional finalists who were excellent candidates and showed great promise. Notably, all five finalists were existing members and all were from regions outside North America. This reflected the needs of the board to maintain strong global representation and a good balance between outside experts and those familiar with the culture and career journeys of our members. These five were (in alphabetical order):
- Sanjiv Agarwala – India – ISACA Pune
- Sanja Kekić – Serbia – ISACA Belgrade
- Hussam Khattab – Jordan – ISACA Amman
- Vaibhav Patkar - India – ISACA Mumbai
- Tim Sattler - Germany – ISACA Germany
We are still formulating the process for selection. However, for this year, we didn’t want to wait and decided to award the fellowship to a cohort that was already well vetted through the board nomination process. So, while there is not yet a formal application process for the Fellowship Program, in subsequent years we will identify individuals through chapter and ISACA global participation and through candidate interviews conducted during the annual Board Nominations Process. Going forward and depending on the success of the program, we will evaluate the need for a more formal application process.
The Fellowship consist of three major work streams:
- ISACA will provide a membership to the US-based National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) for one year and completely fund the training and test-taking for the National Association of Corporate Directors Directorship Certification (NACD.DC). NACD is the most trusted association for the training and continuing education of board directors and provides an abundance of governance resources, on-demand classes, peer discussion forums and insights from thought leaders. The certificate is awarded after a rigorous training program (all virtual and at one’s own pace) followed by an online test. While this training and certificate is focused on US-based corporate best practices, many of the principles and skills are universally applicable worldwide and certainly prepares one well for any US-based company’s or association’s fiduciary board role.
- Individuals in the Fellowship Program will be provided a mentor from the current ISACA board to meet with on a regular basis virtually. These relationships are designed to offer guidance, share insights and help prepare one for a boardroom’s culture.
- Sometime during the year, a project may be assigned with the collaboration and guidance from the CEO. The projects offered aim to provide individuals with first-hand experience dealing with board-level issues, giving the awardee exposure to the board and the board exposure to the awardee. Projects may range from reviewing various policies, charters and bylaws, to chairing ad hoc strategic working groups, to researching and weighing in on specific strategic initiatives.
The Chairs Fellowship is a one-year program. The time commitment will vary based on the goals participants set with their mentor, the projects they would like to be involved in and the amount of training they wish to pursue. The program is meant to be flexible, based on participants’ availability and is designed to be virtual for global participation, but there may be optional travel depending on chosen projects.
Please join me in congratulating these five outstanding exemplars of leadership within the ISACA community. The board looks forward to getting to know them better and to working closely with them to help further advance their careers and open up even more opportunities beyond the world of ISACA.
