Advancing Your Board Journey: Strategy, Game Plan and Targeted Networking

If you’re exploring your first—or next—paid board role, there’s a truth worth understanding clearly and early:

Boards don’t hire résumés.
Boards hire judgment.

And the path to a board seat looks nothing like an executive job search.

FEI Twin Cities, along with the CEO Roundtable and the Private Directors Association Minnesota are hosting a session designed to deliver clarity on how boards actually think, how directors are actually recruited, and why accomplished CEOs can get overlooked—while others get the call.

This will be a candid, practical session led by two seasoned professionals who sit at the intersection of governance, board creation, and board recruitment:

Eric Mahler, Founder of Aretos Advisory, is a board advisor with more than 30 years of experience helping boards and executive teams navigate governance, capital allocation, and high-stakes decision-making across diverse ownership structures.
Mark Rogers, who leads Robert Half’s Executive Search Board Practice and has spent more than two decades advising organizations on board composition, governance, and director selection across public, private, and nonprofit environments.
Between them, they’ve built boards, advised boards, recruited directors, and been accountable to boards across PE-backed companies, public enterprises, founder-led and family businesses, and mission-driven organizations.

What you’ll gain from this session:

• What different boards focus on, the topics dominating boardroom conversations today—and how all that shapes who they seek to fill seats.
• How boards find directors and the signals they actually pay attention to when evaluating potential directors.
• Why executive job search logic fails in board search—and how to approach crafting a personal, board-worthy, game plan for today’s board landscape.
• How board networking really works—and what separates visibility from credibility.

If board service is on your horizon—or already part of your portfolio—this is a conversation worth your time.

We hope you’ll join us.

CPE Learning Objectives:

1. Identify current governance issues and boardroom priorities by examining the key questions directors are asking and how expectations shift across different ownership structures.
2. Develop or refine a personalized strategy for pursuing a paid board role, incorporating insights on today’s board talent landscape, role expectations, and practical steps for strengthening board candidacy.
3. Apply intentional networking techniques for board service, including crafting a concise board focused value proposition and leveraging tools and approaches that support meaningful relationship building and visibility.

Agenda:

• 8:00 AM - 8:30AM    - Registration/Check-in
• 8:30 AM - 8:35 AM   - Welcome – outline of event
• 8:35 AM - 9:15 AM   - Current Boardroom - hot topics
• 9:15 AM - 9:30 AM   - How board role networking different (to get people thinking early)
• 9:30 AM - 9:45 AM   - Break
• 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM - Today’s Landscape - to develop your personal game plan
• 10:45 AM - 11:15 AM  - Intentional networking
• 11:15 AM - 11:30 AM - Speaker’s high value takeaways & Closing Remarks

Free parking
Breakfast

Earn 2.5 CPE credit while exploring timely, relevant content designed for today’s finance professionals
 

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                           *Individuals who register as a Qualified Prospective Member must meet FEI's Membership Qualifications.