Jennifer Dulski: "To Join (Your First) Public Board, Someone Needs to Bet on You"

Jun 10, 2024

Jennifer Dulski, former COO of Change.org, shares her journey from Yahoo to leading Facebook Groups. She discusses her experiences serving on various boards, the importance of diversity, and effective board governance. Topics include board observer roles, setting norms, and dealing with politicization in the boardroom.

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Intro

00:00 • 2min

Journey from Yahoo to Facebook: A Story of Tech, Entrepreneurship, and Social Impact

02:09 • 14min

Enhancing Team Performance with Rising Team Platform

15:44 • 6min

Guest's Diverse Board Journey

21:29 • 11min

Analysis of Various Types of Investors in Companies

32:51 • 2min

Building Effective Boards and Ensuring Success

34:58 • 21min

Admiration for Simone Biles and the Importance of Self-Care

55:47 • 2min

(0:00) Intro.

(1:21) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.

(2:08) Start of interview.

(2:41) Jennifer's "origin story."

(3:41) Founding a non-profit at the start of her career: Breakthrough Pittsburgh.

(4:15) The start of her tech career with Yahoo!

(7:12) Her roles post Yahoo!: founding and selling The Dealmap to Google.

(9:20) Her transition and tenure as president & COO of Change.org (scaling from 18 million to 200 million users). About her Motivational Pie Chart.

(11:07) About Change.org (a social impact campaigning platform) and non-profit and PBC corporate structures.

(14:18) Her time at Facebook (now Meta), leading the Facebook Groups product.

(16:00) About Rising Team, the company she founded and where she currently serves as CEO.

(22:10) On her board journey, and distinctions among different types of companies: non-profits, startups (Little Passports), public companies (Move, TEGNA & WeightWatchers) and VC/PE backed companies. "The truth is to join a public board, somebody needs to take a bet on you if you've never been on a public board."

(32:19) On serving in a VC/PE backed company as a lead independent director and comp committee Chair (Arcadia). On board observer roles. Setting board norms.

(36:55) On the benefit of boardroom diversity.

(39:17) On dealing with the politicization of the boardroom, including DEI and ESG matters.

(42:06) On the benefits of teaching (at Stanford GSB) for her CEO and board roles .

(39:17) On dealing with the politicization of the boardroom, including DEI and ESG matters.

(44:15) Three things top of mind on boardroom matters: 1) Setting up boards for success (norms, board evaluations, etc), 2) Keeping up with new technologies, and 3) Crisis scenario planning.

(49:00) Books that have greatly influenced her life:

Gung Ho, by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles (1997)
The Overstory, by Richard Powers (2018)

(51:14) Her mentors.*Reference to her LinkedIn Post: 5 Mentor Archetypes.

(51:57) Quotes that she thinks of often or lives her life by.

(53:15) About her book: Purposeful: Are you a Manager or a Movement Starter? (2018) The 3 Cs: 1) courage, 2) community, and 3) commitment.

(54:40) An unusual habit or absurd thing that she loves.

(56:00) The living person she most admires: Simone Biles.

Jennifer Dulski is a Silicon Valley based executive and board member. She is currently CEO and founder of Rising Team, a company that provides tools, data, and community to turn managers into amazing coaches that build happier and more successful teams.

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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