Enter the Boardroom with Nurole

David Dein MBE was Vice-Chair of Arsenal, where he signed Arsène Wenger, co-founder of the Premier League, and trustee of the Twinning Project. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: Betting on potential, not just past performance (2:19) David’s distinct approach to deal-making (4:46)  The Sol Campbell and Ian Wright deals (6:29) How David created such a successful relationship with Arsene Wenger (12:04) Superforecasting: Why David started the Premier League (14:35) Innovation: the importance of looking elsewhere (16:23) How David thought about investing in women’s football (19:33) Asset allocation: How the Arsenal board thought about investing in the Emirates stadium (23:47) Strategy and stakeholder management: lessons from the failed Super League and Arsenal investors (25:29) Lessons from David’s role as trustee of the Twinning Project (31:56) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(37:30)Host: Oliver Cummings Producer: Will Felton Music: Kate Mac Audio: Nick Kold Email: podcast@nurole.com Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Louise Hill is Exec Chair, former CEO & Co-founder of GoHenry. Her board roles include Sibstar and Innovate Finance’s Unicorn Council for UK FinTech. Listen to the conversation to hear about: Louise’s sources of support and challenge in the early stages of GoHenry (2:01) How the board helped her with product market fit and go-to-market strategy (4:27) Three key strategic decisions where the board added value (10:22) Why it can be better to target end-users than distribution partners (12:56) The pros and cons of crowdfunding: the story behind the $5.6 million raise on CrowdCube, the highest ever at that point (14:28) Key principles of fundraising every board member should know (21:19) Where Louise could have got more value from her board (26:11) Board and founder lessons from The GoHenry exit (30:38) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(34:22) Host: Oliver Cummings Producer: Will Felton Music: Kate Mac Audio: Nick Kold Email: podcast@nurole.com Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Professor Randall Peterson is a Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School, where he focuses on CEO personality, top management team interaction, board dynamics, leading diverse teams, and the effects of member personality on group interaction and performance. Listen to the conversation to get his thoughts on: The biggest mistakes board members make when trying to influence people (2:14) How board members can get better at influencing (4:27) The difference between executive and non-executive influence (5:25) How power dynamics and key individuals shape decisions boards (8:37) How expertise really influences decision-making on boards (14:27)  The six archetypal board members and how to influence them (16:20) The stakeholder representative challenge: a cautionary example (24:28) How board members can influence organisational culture (27:50) Strategy vs. culture: how board members should think about the balance (36:58) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(40:09)Host: Oliver Cummings Producer: Will Felton Music: Kate Mac Audio: Nick Kold Email: podcast@nurole.com Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Fiona Hathorn is CEO and co-founder of Women on Boards UK, now known as WB Directors and recently acquired by Nurole. Listen to the conversation to hear about: What motivated Fiona to help more women get board roles (1:40); One woman’s success story that illustrates how to get board roles (5:32); The benefits of taking on external board positions as an executive (8:15); The biggest misconception CEOs and CHROs have about board positions (16:02); The most common challenges faced by board members today (18:35); Why culture is such a challenge for boards and what to do about it (21:24); Key advice for those at the start of their board journeys (25:24); The most common mistakes people make when applying for board positions (28:40); How to transition from pro bono to paid board roles (30:02), and ⚡the Lightning round ⚡(33:17)Host: Oliver Cummings Producer: Will Felton Music: Kate Mac Audio: Nick Kold Email: podcast@nurole.com Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Steve Rigby is Co-CEO of Rigby Group, one of the UK's largest family businesses and in the top 500 largest family companies in the world. Listen to the conversation to hear about: Three key career moments that have shaped Steve’s boardroom thinking (2:02) NED lessons from the retail sector and financial crisis (5:01) How to survive a potential future of inflation, rising prices and crashing assets (9:29) Steve’s playbook for growing and selling businesses (11:51) Lessons on internationalisation (13:40) The best markets to aim for (15:29) The one big inflection point per decade of Steve’s career (17:43) Return on net assets as a north star metric (21:50) Steve’s risk-effort-reward-fun framework (23:33) Why Steve has shifted from a scientific to intuitive assessment of risk (27:03) Key lessons from 50+ acquisitions (30:59) When Steve mistakenly overruled advisors (33:17) How boards help navigate family in family businesses (35:23) ⚡The lightning round ⚡(37:58) Host: Oliver Cummings Producer: Will Felton Music: Kate Mac Audio: Nick Kold Email: podcast@nurole.com Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Baroness Dido Harding is a former Chair of NHS Improvement, Executive Chair of NHS Test & Trace, NED at the Bank of England, and CEO of TalkTalk Telecom Group plc. In this conversation, we cover: • How Dido handled Ofcom scrutiny after taking on her first CEO role at TalkTalk (01:50) • Lessons learned from the TalkTalk cyber attack (08:21) • The value of functional experts on boards (24:23) • Governance lessons from leading NHS Test & Trace (26:56) • ⚡ Lightning Round ⚡ (33:18)Host: Oliver Cummings Producer: Will Felton Music: Kate Mac Audio: Nick Kold Email: podcast@nurole.com Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Jock Lennox is Senior Independent Director and Audit Committee Chair at Barratt Developments plc, and Chair of Johnson Service Group plc and Clarion Housing Group. Listen to his thoughts on: the three most definitive experiences in your board career (2:01); approaching uncertainty in the boardroom (6:59); shifting boardroom thinking to focus on what’s possible rather than a binary sense of right and wrong (10:21); how to challenge the executive as a board member (11:47); the best way to harness cognitive diversity (14:40); where boards add the most value (16:51); getting the most from strategy days (20:19); what separates good audit committees from bad ones (24:42); how audit committees can assess and influence culture (32:21); getting past people telling you what you want to hear (37:28); when Jock has misjudged an individual — and what he learned (40:50); and the ⚡Lightning Round⚡ (43:54).Host: Oliver Cummings Producer: Will Felton Music: Kate Mac Audio: Nick Kold Email: podcast@nurole.com Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Dr. Margaret Heffernan is author of seven books, including Wilful Blindness, Uncharted and Embracing Uncertainty. A former CEO of InfoMation Corp, ZineZone Corp, and iCast Corp, she was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame in 2024. In this episode, we discuss: Balancing rigidity with flexibility in board meetings (1:35) What great board agendas look like (6:47) When ice -breakers help, and when they don’t (8:35) Helpful versus unhelpful challenge (10:58) Wilful blindness - and why smart people suffer from it (13:32) How to mitigate wilful blindness (16:36) Collaboration versus competition - lessons from The Human Genome Project (18:39) The super-chicken problem, and what should boards can learn from it (21:32) And the ⚡Lightning Round⚡(24:06) Host: Oliver Cummings Producer: Will Felton Music: Kate Mac Audio: Nick Kold Email: podcast@nurole.com Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Dr. Margaret Heffernan is author of seven books, including Wilful Blindness, Uncharted and Embracing Uncertainty. A former CEO of InfoMation Corp, ZineZone Corp, and iCast Corp, she was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame in 2024. In this episode, we discuss: What uncertainty does to board decision-making (2:47) Practical ways boards can mitigate it (6:25) Squaring “take your time” with decisiveness (11:10) What a robust boardroom decision process looks like (14:36) Being agile without flip-flopping (18:13) When and how to use cooling-off periods (21:22) What deep hanging out means in practice (22:37) Absorbing context beyond datapoints (25:38) The value of unstructured time in the boardroom (27:54) An example of reaching the right answer without an agenda (32:10)Host: Oliver Cummings Producer: Will Felton Music: Kate Mac Audio: Nick Kold Email: podcast@nurole.com Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Peter Clark is a NED at Clarks. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What makes a great i-NED on a family board? (2:15) What should you look for when recruiting NEDs in a family business? (5:27) What questions do you ask when interviewing a NED candidate? (8:07) What mistakes have you made when hiring NEDs in the past? (11:18) How has Clarks remained a family business for 7 generations? (13:39) What is a family council? (16:01) What discussions do you have on the council? (18:39) How do you navigate a professional relationship with a family member? (21:22) How do you select family members to join the council? (22:28) Where do you think you have added the most value as a NED? (26:42) Why did you bring outside investment into Clarks? (28:10) How did the relationship between the Clarks family and the business evolve post investment? (32:28) What advice would you give to other family businesses looking at external investment as an option? (34:03) And ⚡ The Lightning Round ⚡ (39:19)Host: Oliver Cummings Producer: Will Felton Music: Kate Mac Audio: Nick Kold Email: podcast@nurole.com Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom