Ana Dutra: "Think of Your Board Journey As Any Career."
Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein
How Did You Start Your Board Career?
Evan Wolfson: You can't go from never serving on a board to serve on a public company board and think that, number one, you are going to be a viable candidate. He says his very first board was actually the soccer association in the town when his kids were little. "I learned what emotion was, what committees did, how you got something approved," he says.Wolfson has served so far on seven public company boards,. I serve on a number of private company boards, as well as non-for-profit organizations.
0:00 Intro.
1:45 Start of interview.
2:40 Ana's "origin story". She was born and raised in Rio do Janeiro, Brazil. She got degrees in law and economics, and started her career in sales at IBM in Brazil in the mid-1980s. In 1992 she moved to the U.S. to get an MBA at Northwestern University. That led to a career of over 30 years in technology, M&A and global business transformations. A couple of years ago she retired from her last job as CEO, and she embarked in her board "portfolio career": public, private and non-profit boards, in addition to teaching and doing some advisory work for CEOs.
4:55 Her advice for aspiring directors: "Think of your board journey as any career." She started serving on non-profit boards and worked her way up to private and public companies. Her first public company board was CME Group. She's served on 7 public company boards, plus many private and non-profit boards.
7:46 Distinctions on serving on public/private/non-profit boards ("even within those buckets there are significant differences.") Her other current public company boards: First Internet Bancorp (NASDAQ: INBK), Carparts.com (NASDAQ: PRTS); Amyris (NASDAQ: AMRS), and Pembina Pipeline (NYSE: PBA). When she thinks about board opportunities, she thinks about three things:
- Is she aligned with the mission/vision of the company and what it stands for.
- Does she have the skills, experience, credentials and competencies to add value to the board.
- Does she like the people (other board members).
12:56 Her experience serving on the board of Eletrobras, a major Brazilian state-owned power generation company. "There is always a give and take --what you offer and what you learn-- and that to me is what makes board service so interesting."
16:27 Her thoughts on the evolution of ESG and DEI. Her article "Cutting Through the ESG Noise: A Practical Framework for Corporate Boards" with Cigdem Oktem, Regional Leader, EY Center for Board Matters.
22:15 Her thoughts on boardroom diversity, SB-826 and AB-979 getting struck down in California Courts. "I wish we didn't have to rely on quotas, but the truth is that when left in the hands of nom/gov chairs, board chairs and companies and executives, [progress] was just not happening."
"All I can hope for is that some halo effect [since SB-826] has demonstrated that having diversity and inclusion on boards is a good business practice."
24:41 On the progress of Latinos on boards. She serves on the board of the Latino Corporate Directors Association (LCDA), co-Chairs its Latino Corporate Directors Educational Foundation (LCDEF) that delivers on the BoardReady Institute (BRI).
28:20 On the politicization of boards. "Over the last three years there has been extreme politicization globally, not only in the U.S." "I am a big proponent of full disclosure on where you stand as an institution and/or corporation."
32:18 Her thoughts on Coinbase's position (a "mission driven company") and Salesforce (strong proponent of stakeholder capitalism). "Both companies took a stand, and that is what's important."
34:52 Her take on governance practices in the tech industry. On the role of experience and self-awareness in leadership.
37:17 Discussion of founder-led tech companies, governance consequences, and reverse bias discrimination. "Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity but cash is reality." "Sometimes there is too much of a good thing." "What is lacking is appreciation and respect for experience."
44:52 The 3 books that have greatly influenced her life:
- Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl (1946)
- The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho (1988)
- Exodus, by Leon Uris (1958)
46:06- Who were your mentors, and what did you learn from them? "I have had so many, I apply a 360 mentorship model" "I crave feedback and mentorship all the time."
47:05 - Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?
- "When contemplating an opportunity, if you don't foresee the possibility of death, bankruptcy or prison, then go for it!"
- "Always think about how to pay it forward" (good karma)
- Particularly for women who suffer from imposter syndrome: "Remember that you're seeing people from the outside where they seem so confident but you don't know what they are feeling on the inside, so do your thing, walk in confident, don't worry too much about outside influence."
49:16- An unusual habit or an absurd thing that she loves: "Melting chocolate and top it with yogurt or nuts to pretend that it's healthy." Reality TV, she's watched every season of the Survivor!
50:30 - The living person she most admires: her middle sister, a pediatrician in Brazil, "probably the most knowledgeable, powerful and yet so humble and generous."
Ana Dutra is an experienced CEO, business advisor and corporate director of publicly traded, family-owned and private corporations. As CEO of Korn Ferry Consulting, Ana led the global the Board Effectiveness practice. Ana currently serves as corporate director at the CME Group (NASDAQ: CME), First Internet Bancorp (NASDAQ: INBK), Carparts.com (NASDAQ: PRTS); Amyris (NASDAQ: AMRS), and Pembina Pipeline (NYSE: PBA). She also serves on the Board of the Latino Corporate Directors Association and co-Chairs its Educational Foundation Board.
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You can follow Evan on social media at:
Twitter: @evanepstein
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/
Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/
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Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
You can follow Evan on social media at:
X: @evanepstein
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/
Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/
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To support this podcast you can join as a subscriber of the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at https://evanepstein.substack.com/
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Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
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