Warmenhoven: Start board meetings with an unscripted, closed-door CEO report
Dan Warmenhoven · a16z Podcast | How to Lead, Not Manage Your Board · Jan 2, 2019 · at 36:47
Dan Warmenhoven is the former CEO and Chairman of NetApp. He shares boardroom governance tactics on an a16z podcast panel.
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“I encourage every CEO of every board I'm on to start the meeting that way. It's a private meeting. It's a closed-door session. It's a CEO report. What it's labeled as is no materials in advance. It's all verbal.”
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Warmenhoven: Co-founders and direct reports must be excluded from board executive sessions
“Since all those issues are performance related, it's really awkward to have one of the CEOs direct reports in the room. And you find a lot of board structures that start off with a CEO and a technical founder or whatever, a co-founder. Get them off. Get them o…”
Warmenhoven: Boards exist for company success, not CEO personal development
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“Any more than one outsider until you get to Series B is maybe too many mouths to feed.”