Q: I’ve been elected to my first board seat, a mid-cap regional health services firm.  I’m familiar with this sector and the company, have spoken with the management team, and know a couple of current board members, so I have the essentials pretty well.  But now, ten days before my first board meeting, I’ve just… Read More

The Black Lives Matter movement and civil rights protests across the country, triggered by the issue of police violence, have heightened awareness of racial inequality. Public and private institutions are issuing statements of solidarity, re-examining their hiring practices and workplace cultures, and promising social justice. These good intentions should be applauded. But the hard part… Read More

Philanthropy is important to many privately held business owners who often include charitable endeavors as part of their post-exit plans. Yet even those who earmark exit proceeds for their favorite nonprofit sometimes fail to appreciate the savings that charitable planning can create. That helps explain why many business owners overlook philanthropy in their pre-transaction planning…. Read More

It only took 18 characters and a social media firestorm to blow up Baha Nabulsi’s career.  Nabulsi, a real estate professional with eXp Realty, didn’t see the disaster coming. She didn’t even think that much about the three-word post that would ultimately lead to the loss of her job and prompt a storm of online… Read More

When coronavirus burst onto the scene earlier this year, we had no idea how this health crisis would affect every aspect of American life, infecting almost 8 million people nationwide and devastating communities across Illinois. As a former Navy intelligence officer, I learned how to analyze different scenarios from top to bottom, paying particular attention… Read More

The United States and China are currently engaged in a complex relationship. While retaining important aspects of cooperation, it is increasingly characterized by rivalries that span multiple domains, including national security, trade, finance, advanced technologies, cyber, and space.  Often minimized or overlooked, however, is an important ideological element to this competition. To read more, please… Read More

As well all know COVID-19 has turned our world upside down. Business issues and concerns have been amplified due to the impact and unknowns of COVID-19.  Our growing dependence on digital media has amplified the spotlight on CEOs even more.  In his October 2019 article Negative Press is Inevitable for Modern CEOs — And That’s… Read More

As colleges and universities across the country debate whether to bring students back to their campuses this fall, hold all of their courses online or offer some hybrid of the two, they are rightly focusing on how to best address all of the complicated health and safety challenges. But as they try to figure out… Read More

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed, like no crisis before it, just how difficult it has now become for the United States and China to find common cause. One remarkable feature of the past few months has been the near-total lack of communication and cooperation between the world’s two leading powers, who instead have publicly engaged… Read More

Obsolescence should not be feared. While it signals the end of something familiar, it welcomes a new way forward. We have reached this crossroads with retained executive search. It is obsolete. Today, the retained executive search process is costly. Frequently, after lengthy recruiting processes, retained searches deliver new board members who fit poorly with the… Read More