At The Private Company Governance Summit 2025, I had the privilege of moderating four sessions. Now, some might call that a “daunting task,” but I call it a privilege because what else would you call the opportunity to talk to some of the nation’s most prominent directors about the issues affecting private and family companies and their boardrooms? I spoke with Jim McHugh, Tom Sween and Justine Tobin about conflicts of interest. I conversed with Ayo Alaran, Raquel Brigham Brown and Jay Brodsky about cybersecurity. I kibbitzed with Lynn Clarke, Martin Frech and Julia Klein about risk and crisis management. And I would like to write an Editor’s Letter about each of those conversations.
But, since space is limited, I am going to focus on my conversation with Colette LaForce, Steven Lustig and Pamela Packard, which centered around the board/CEO relationship. Simply put, a solid working relationship between the board and the CEO is essential for a company’s success. So, what are the essential characteristics and behaviors that must be displayed in the relationship between a private company board and its CEO?
Packard, who is lead independent director and nom/gov committee chair of Gray & Company Inc., was pretty much born for this session, in that she also serves as CEO of Strategic Enterprises LLC. It also helped that she came prepared with her own framework for a positive board/CEO relationship, which she calls the “collection of Cs.”
“It starts with collaboration as a strategy. And that’s built on culture, both the company’s culture and the board’s culture,” said Packard. “And of course communication is a key aspect of that, including the content, timing and frequency of that communication. And just as important is the clarity of roles and responsibilities for the CEO, the board and the owners.”
So, collaboration, culture, communication and clarity are all essential traits of a productive board/CEO relationship. Not to belabor this focus on the letter C, but Lustig, who is an independent director of both Mills Manufacturing and Loh Medical as well as president and director of Atlanta Technology Angels, thought that a concentration on clarity was … critical. According to Lustig, a shared understanding of what the board is there for and what corporate governance truly is stands as a vital starting point.
“It starts with the ‘fingers out’ philosophy, but what does that mean specifically? Management needs to understand what the board should and shouldn’t be doing, how it can help and what its intent is,” said Lustig, who is also CEO and founder of Lustig Global Consulting. “The board needs to communicate and demonstrate positive intent in how it can help the company and its stakeholders succeed and, through that, how it can help the CEO succeed. By demonstrating that to the CEO, you can really build a strong relationship.”
LaForce has had an illustrious career on private company boards, serving as a director and committee chair for Ulteig and FGM Architects and a director of Argus Consulting Inc. She has also served in management positions for companies like Accenture, Dell and Rackable Systems, just to name a few. In other words, she has worked with a good number of CEOs. And one of the key things she has heard from them is the position of CEO can be a solitary existence.
“One of the things I heard early in my career was the CEO was a lonely job. I’ve talked to and worked with many CEOs over the years who have affirmed that and I think the bigger the organization, the tougher it gets,” said LaForce.
It is this sense of isolation that leads LaForce to believe the most essential ingredient in a positive and productive board/CEO relationship is trust. And since trust is something that can only be built over time, LaForce says, “I think it’s especially important for all of us who serve on boards to try to start building that trust as early as possible. There are all kinds of ways that we can do that, but it’s really critical to understand what the CEO job can be like and how it can be a bit lonely. It will positively change how we as board members engage with our CEOs.”
In other words, while it may be lonely at the top, the best private companies feature boards with a host of insightful, supportive hands pushing the CEO (and the company) up to that highest level.