Nora Denzel: Technology Leadership in the Boardroom

Jan 27, 2025

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(0:00) Intro.

(1:47) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel

(2:34) Start of interview. *Reference to prior episode with Nora (E74 from Oct 2022)

(3:42) About the 2024 NACD Blue Ribbon Commission on Technology Leadership in the Boardroom: Driving Trust and Value

(7:29) On the evolving role of the board overseeing technology and cybersecurity

(10:41) On the surge of AI technology and its underlying infrastructure

(13:15) The role of trust in the age of AI

(17:22) How to think about ROI in technology from the boardroom

(20:12) Board composition and technology expertise

(27:19) Recommendations or takeaways from the BRC Report.

(31:00) On AI regulation "It's really important to self-regulate"

(34:13) Technology strategy and board committee structures

(38:38) Tech aptitude in directors: 1) digital outsiders, 2) digital immigrants, 3) digital early adopters and 4) digital natives

(41:52) On board education "needs to be more like Call of Duty" "directors should be learn-it-all's, not know-it-all's"

(43:25) Best practices for board evaluations "you can only operate at the speed of trust" "the chair sets the tone"

(46:42) On "Zero-based agenda setting"

(49:14) Priority items for boards in 2025: talent in the boardroom/company, and having "THE meeting to govern Tech/AI"

(52:02) On being "courageously optimistic" and how to address AI doomsayers

(56:22) Nora's Top 6 Recommendations for Board Members to Become more Familiar with AI

Nora Denzel is a Silicon Valley technology executive. She serves as the Lead Independent Director and Chair of the NomGov Committee at AMD. She also serves on the Gen Digital (NASDAQ: GEN), SUSE S.A. and NACD boards.

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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