Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva

From a course comes a movement.

When the first Women on Boards (WOB) Executive Education program wrapped up in 2016, the cohort of 67 women from 17 countries, who had studied with HBS faculty how boards worked and the skills needed to navigate them, felt inspired and eager to sustain the valuable new connections they had just formed.

“The camaraderie among participants was richer and more vibrant than other executive programs I’ve experienced,” says Cathy Benko (MBA 1989). “The curriculum and veracity of any executive education program only gets you so far; but from day one, the group instinctively understood—and has taken great advantage of—the collective network potential in terms of shared experiences, peer counseling, coaching, relationship cultivation, and ongoing support systems.”

Bonnie Hagemann

Benko joined what is now known as WomenExecs on Boards (WomenExecs), a mission-based network cofounded by fellow WOB participants Lisa Pent and Bonnie Hagemann with a vision to become the go-to source for corporate boards to find and recruit highly qualified women.

Initially, Pent, an account executive at Grant Thornton, started organizing monthly conference calls with her WOB cohort. They were great for education, she recalls, but progress was slow as far as gaining seats. So, Hagemann, CEO of Executive Development Associates, created a directory of the 2016 and 2017 WOB participants so the women could connect when they travel. She put each woman’s photo, name, title, company, and location into a database and shared it with all the women.

It was a valuable resource, but a database alone wouldn’t be enough, Hagemann reasoned. “If we launched a formal network,” she told Pent, “I think we could change the world for women on boards and in senior executive positions. We can change it for ourselves and we can change it for the women coming up behind us.”

In March 2018, Pent and Hagemann birthed the idea of the formal network, and seven months later held a retreat in New York City for 42 former WOB participants.

Maria Garcia Nielsen

Hagemann currently serves as copresident of WomenExecs with Maria Garcia Nielsen, board director and former CEO of Office Depot for Spain and Portugal. Along with its mission to position former WOB participants to serve on corporate boards through networking, support, and education, WomenExecs employs a set of guiding principles—commitment, courage, connectivity, conviction—to make that happen.

“Typically, a board knows a seat is coming open. They talk among themselves. They are going to choose someone they know, and they recommend that person to the recruiter,” says Hagemann. “We have to get on those boards and on the nominating committees. We have to be the ones saying who should be considered for the next open seat.”

Benko, who was named to Nike’s board of directors in 2018, says that WomenExecs’s member diversity—by geography, industry, function—both builds confidence and expands reach for each member, regardless of her career stage. “I’ve been very fortunate with the opportunities and experiences afforded to me throughout my career, but I still learn from the experiences of other members, just as other members may benefit from the lessons I’ve learned,” she says.

As a former Deloitte vice chairman and a long-time student of organizational culture and inclusion, Benko says there’s no magic formula.

“The market for public and private board seats is seemingly the most inefficient market I have witnessed. For so long it was driven by who you know and who those people know,” she says, noting that when board opportunities come her way, “I never say no. Instead, I listen to what the need is, go to the network, and respond with several who may be a fit. The more women who get on boards, the more of a pull it can create for others.”

More than 140 women participated in the third HBS Women on Boards program last year, covering topics ranging from politics and financial crises to individual board member responsibilities over five intensive days on campus. HBS Professor Boris Groysberg, who co-chairs the Executive Education program with Professor Lynn Paine, said they conceived it for the female executives, to help them understand and overcome the barriers women face is seeking governance roles.

“It was painful to hear their stories. I hate any inequality,” Groysberg says. “I said, ‘If it bothers me so much, I should teach and make a difference.’”

Jeanette Gorgas

Dovetailing with the program’s growth is the WomenExecs network’s growth, which counted 96 members from all three sessions of Women on Boards as of May 2019. Jeanette Gorgas (AMP 165, 2003) joined as part of the 2016 cohort when she was chief strategy officer at Grant Thornton and precluded by company policy from taking a board role. After resigning last fall, Gorgas joined the board of an accounting software and services company and is now considering other board opportunities.

“I was introduced to the talented female CEO of the company by another superstar woman from the HBS Women on Boards program. The CEO and I got to know each other over the course of a few months, and I talked to the other board directors. I did my due diligence, they did theirs, and I was asked to join. The recommendation from my friend in the WOB program really mattered, and this is a perfect example of the power of the network,” Gorgas observes.

Rosie Bichard

Women in the network—which is planning its next retreat in Boston this October—pay membership fees, volunteer, and reach out to other members. Rosie Bichard, who sits on the placement committee, says, “I am firmly of the opinion that we should help each other, that everyone in the network should gain a board seat—in their own time. I’m on their backside, making sure that they have realistic objectives set out, that they have their elevator pitch.”

Gorgas was just one of several women who have stepped into a leadership role, confirming for Hagemann what she hoped would be true about the network’s powerful, global dynamic as key leaders from all over the world.

“We didn’t think this was going to be easy. Many of our members are CEOs and senior executives, and some are high profile. At the end of the day, behind the expensive suits, fancy purses, and impressive résumés, we already knew how to do it because we are mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends. We just had to apply that part of ourselves to helping each other in business. It was—and is—crucial that our culture be positive, compassionate, and sometimes forgiving,” Hagemann explains. “Our numbers are getting better, with more members gaining board seats and opportunities to interview. We knew the network was achieving success when a recruiting company sent WomenExecs four open board seats through one of our members.”

The quieter victories also feel significant. Bichard, who is currently on the board of a social impact fund connected to Oxfam in the United Kingdom, says she recently helped another WomenExecs member professionalize her profile.

“She had recovered from breast cancer, was in a full-time role, and was also doing elder care for an ailing family member. Everything was in her way. Then a potential board seat appeared for her. When I emailed her, she said, ‘I’m not ready,’” Bichard recalls. “She really needed a confidence boost, and over a three-day period we hammered the whole thing out. She hasn’t heard back yet, but the idea is, one by one, we get everyone prepared.”

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