Disclosure certainty 5/5 debate potential 2/5

Greene: VMware required board members to offer annual resignations

Diane Greene · a16z Podcast | The Truth about Serving on Boards (with Diane Greene and Marc Andreessen) · Jan 2, 2019 · at 34:40

Diane Greene, co-founder and former CEO of VMware and board member at Google and Intuit, explains how she implemented public company governance mechanisms at her startup.

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“Thing is that you make sure, and I did this in my startup, and I don't know if startups do this, but I adopted the big board practice of you resign every year. You offer your resignation every year.”

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