FEATURED ARTICLE
Private Company  Boards & Business Disruption: CEO shares best practices

A Q&A with Julia Klein, CEO of a major privately held firm and veteran private company board member. 

By Eve Tahmincioglu

Private companies worried about being prepared for the next big business disruption could benefit from an independent board that can keep owners and management on track.

That advice comes from someone who’s been there.

Julia Klein is chairwoman & chief executive officer of Reading, Pa.-based C.H. Briggs Company, one of the nation’s largest independently owned distributors of specialty building materials.  And she’s a veteran private-company board director who knows first hand the value of good governance, especially when it’s done right.

Here is a Q&A with Klein, who will be a featured speaker at the  upcoming Private Company Governance Summit 2018:  Boards & Business Disruption. The summit will take place in May in Washington, D.C.

DIVERSITY

Women Add Value to Private Boards

By April Hall

The slow pace of women heading to the nation’s private company boardrooms mirrors the sluggish rate at public companies. That’s bad news because experts say women now entering the world of governance offer more than ever before.

Both private and public boards have a comparable percentage of women directors, according to the 2016 Global Survey of Directors from WomenCorporateDirectors Foundation and Spencer Stuart — around 18%. An exact number is unavailable as private companies have no requirement to report the makeup of their boards.

TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

Embracing Tomorrow's Disruption

By Bill Rock

A few years ago, Milton Rock, my grandfather and the longtime publisher of Directors & Boards magazine, was asked what was the best day of his life and without hesitation replied: “tomorrow.”

Earlier this year, he passed away at the age of 96. He was a remarkable man of exceptional vision who, as managing partner of the Hay Group, helped to transform and professionalize corporate governance. (Today, Hay is part of Korn Ferry.) For someone who accomplished so many great things, he never dwelt on the past, but always faced the future. 

As president of MLR Holdings, the owner of media and B2B information businesses, including Private Company Director, I have been fortunate to serve on the boards of private companies with some very talented individuals. That includes the board of 451 Research, a provider of technology business intelligence and market data, owned by MLR Holdings.