r2i forum

India , I am not sure.

In US, if it's public company usually it's selected initially by the CEO, Founders, senior mgmt. and the Venture Capital management which funded the company when it was still private. Once initial board is setup, board votes to bring new members with names put forward by other board members. Usually high profile names like CEO/SeniorVP/CTO/CFO from other successful companies in the same field make up the board with some names thrown in from public sector/Politics.

Some board members are paid through stock options and some are paid honorarily like 5% of their compensation in their main company where they are employed FT. Most of them are paid in one way or the other and payment depends on how much they are active and contribute to the company's initiatives in their BoD roles.

Non profit orgs usually comprises of local business leaders in addition to the main donors and upper management and Non profit BoDs are usually honorary with no payment AFAIK. Examples are local chamber of commerce,local chapter of Red Cross etc.

In addition to what Raresha mentioned, certain non-profits require their Board Members to contribute to the non-profit a certain amount per annum to serve on the Board. The amount ranges from a few hundred to several thousands depending on the institution/organization. The lapse in payment also results in the termination of the Board membership.

There's no such job as "Board of Director".

One can, however, become a director on the board (of directors).

I would like to hear from other members as well. I am a C level executive for a small firm. I attend CIO meetings and other networking events but not as many as I would like. I guess because of your visibility in the society (professional front), people would approach you to serve on their board if they think you are an expert in such and such field. I would like to serve in Non Profit orgs before venturing into For-Profit companies.

C2R

Board Members are nominated and then chosen on following criteria:

You need to belong to "the club", whether it is the old boy's club or exclusive golf club or church or whatever affiliations you have.

Who you know. Your network and its worth.

What you bring to the board: your expertise, your money, your ability to broker deals for the company.

What having you on the board says to investors, the market and competitors about the company.

Its a tightly knit group of mostly gentlemen who are typically rich and have a lot of power and want someone like them to be on their team. For the past 20 years, high profile professors from top schools are finding themselves more and more on boards as well.

Try joining a small credit union and volunteer to become BOD. I had an opportunity to apply for one but didn't know the value of it at that time. Now that Credit union has become a bank and very hard to become one.
Now I am exploring opportunities to get on BOD for small companies in India.

Thanks everyone for reply.


As MINDIA suggested, though not sure how to approach, I will try volunteering as BOD for small for profit and non-profit organization in US and India like IT companies, Colleges etc.,.