This report is based on a survey of a 140 UK based respondents across Audit Committee Chairs, Board Chairs, CFOs and Audit Partners in the UK. The survey was supplemented with 21 interviews with UK Board Chairs, Audit Committee Chairs, CFOs and Audit Partners aimed at determining what characteristics are needed to lead this key Committee, what the job entails now, and crucially how an Audit Committee Chair can succeed.

According to Vivek Khemka, who co-leads Egon Zehnder’s CEO Practice in India, chief executives are, in general, quite confident in their skills and their abilities, but at the same time also admit that certain parts of the role have proven more challenging and isolating than anticipated.

It is a truism of corporate governance that a strong, highly functioning board can be an invaluable asset to management, going beyond oversight to provide guidance and strategic counsel to the CEO and his or her team. But these benefits can only be realized if the board and management have the trust and transparency that allows for candid, constructive conversation.

In our role as leadership advisors, we are often asked to conduct board effectiveness reviews. These comprehensive studies help boards improve their performance by recommending specific changes that impact board dynamics, process improvements and governance.

Leadership has never been easy. Yet given the current volatility of the external world—stemming from geopolitical uncertainty, activist pressure, a new generation of employees, and digital disruption—running a large company is both more challenging and less secure than it’s ever been, as the daily drumbeat of CEO departures shows.

Whether it’s racial tensions in a coffee shop or testimony before Congress about privacy, CEOs face a lot of pressure to make things right. But where do CEOs typically turn to when they need honest feedback Not the boardroom.

Based on Egon Zehnder's published analysis, there is measured progress in diversity gains among women on Boards.

Female lawyers of Asian descent are climbing the ranks as general counsel and heading the legal departments of Fortune 500 companies at an unprecedented rate.

Discussion Highlights from Egon Zehnder’s 7th Annual CEO Breakfast at CERAWeek 2018.

As a steadily-growing trillion-dollar economy with a youthful, tech-savvy population, Indonesia is at once blessed with big-market opportunities and challenged by rapidly-changing customer expectations and the competitive global landscape.