When I sat on my first board as an executive director, I had the track record in terms of experience. What I didn't have was a clear understanding of what being a board member really entailed. Fortunately, my Chairperson was not only highly experienced and professional; more importantly he had a very strong understanding of what an "effective board" actually meant, and what being an "effective board member" means. As I moved more intentionally into boardroom space myself, appointing non-executive directors, advising clients on setting up their new boards or assessing existing boards on their effectiveness - across Africa and into Europe and the UAE - I also found myself coaching and guiding aspiring and active non-executive directors. Offering practical guidelines, diving into the questions so many shared and looking at the unique package each person held.

I had to learn it the way most new directors do: by getting it wrong a few times first.

Since 2018, I've worked with aspiring and newly appointed non-executive directors, as well as established boards and experienced independent and executive directors, across South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, the UK and further afield. Every conversation surfaced the same questions — about positioning, about process, about how to actually get chosen.

So I did something about it.

I've taken those years of conversations — the questions I was asked over and over, the mistakes I watched talented people make, the things I wish someone had told me before my first non-executive board seat — and built them into a single, structured pathway.

Not generic governance theory. The practitioner knowledge of how it really works.

Because I've been where you are.

And now I've built what I wish I'd had.