Private Company Director’s Directors to Watch 2026 highlights 29 significant and diverse directors who have contributed to and will continue to expand ongoing dialogue on board best practices and corporate governance excellence.
Kathy Leake
Everyrealm Inc.
Kathy Leake is a four-time AI founder who has scaled companies from ideation to $100 million in revenue and delivered eight-times returns to shareholders. Over the past 18 years, Leake has served on the boards of private equity-backed, venture capital-funded and pre-IPO companies. As a director, Leake focuses on accelerating value creation through targeted scaling, strategic mergers and acquisitions, and AI transformation that drives competitive advantage and positions companies for successful exits.
Throughout her career, Leake has driven high-impact AI and digital transformation initiatives that deliver measurable results for stakeholders and accelerate organizational change. Leake’s perspective is grounded in entrepreneurial execution, fluency with emerging technologies and governance experience across multiple company lifecycles. Leake serves on the boards of Everyrealm and Aloqia.
Leake is a member of Extraordinary Women on Boards and Women Corporate Directors.
Responsible AI governance. “Sound AI governance begins with disciplined oversight grounded in transparency, accountability and informed curiosity. Directors must ensure AI is deployed responsibly, with clear metrics for ethics, auditability and risk control. Boards should press management to articulate not only performance outcomes but model logic, data lineage and safeguards. Effective governance integrates AI into enterprise strategy while protecting stakeholder trust. As fiduciaries, directors must treat AI as both catalyst and duty, enabling innovation confidently but never blindly. Responsible AI isn’t optional. It’s core to modern corporate stewardship and value creation.”