"Building a Board" 20 Questions
"Building a Board" 20 Questions
CICA's "20 Questions Boards on Building a Board"
“20 Questions Directors Should Ask About Building a Board” is one of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants’ series of publications on governance
for directors. The Risk Management and Governance Board of the CICA developed this briefing to help Corporate Governance Committees and others who are responsible
for selecting members for Boards of Directors. The document addresses the factors that contribute to the creation of an effective Board and describes a process for recruiting directors. It is intended primarily for directors of companies that are listed on stock exchanges in Canada and the United States but the principles it describes are
also, as good practice, appropriate for other organizations.
The GovernanceExcellence Module provides a quick and easy way for an organization to assess its practices against this framework of best practices, to help build consensus within the organization of what practices might be and to benchmark the organization against other similar organizations.
Factors assessed
- A1. Board Structure
- A1.1 Board independence
- A1.2 Independence of the Chair
- A1.3 Nominating Committee
- A1.4 Compensation Committee
- A1.5 How many Directors?
- A1.6 Selecting the Chair
- A1.7 Lead Directors
- A1.8 What committees?
- B1. Skills and Experience
- B1.1 Skills Needed
- B1.2 Industry Experience
- B1.3 Personal Qualities
- B1.4 Behavioural Skills
- B1.5 Director Orientation
- B1.6 Continuing Education
- C1. Commitment
- C1.1 Director's job description
- C1.2 Individual director commitment
- C1.3 Director compensation
- C1.4 Length of service
- C1.5 Other qualities of prospective directors
- D1. Recruiting the Board
- D1.1 Best sources of directors
- D1.2 Approaching prospective directors
- D1.3 Interviewing prospective directors
- D1.4 Background checks
- D1.5 Nominating committee time and resources