0:00 -- Intro.1:14-- About this podcast's sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.2:09 -- Start of interview.2:41 -- Abby's "origin story." 4:11 -- Her time at Hambrecht & Quist. Distinctions between IPO market in the 1990s and the current environment. Her time as a CEO of a venture-backed e-commerce company. Her time at Russell Reynolds (7 years).10:36 -- The history, mission and current focus of her company Boardspan, founded in 2014. "To help boards succeed." "[The focus is a mixture of] a traditional service business [board recruiting] and a very modern brand new IT business, around assessments and information gathering and marry those two." "And I think that was the hardest part quite honestly, is how you marry both the service and a software business and deliver both at the same time."14:24 -- On high performing boards and board culture."We developed a framework to talk about high -performing boards. [It is] really simple. I call it OARS, which is like rowing a boat, just to make it easy for people to remember. 'O' stands for oversight, 'A', accountability, 'R' is risk mitigation, and 'S' is strategy.""We all know that board work is a team sport. So, if board members are not aligned, it's really hard for them to do their work. It's not an individual sport and everybody knows that."17:24 -- Differences in board dynamics between public and private (venture-backed) boards.23:28 -- On the importance of board committees. "Committees are where the vast majority of the board's work is done, and they're really important. I often refer to them as the workhorses of the board.""I just want to remind your listeners that committees don't make decisions. They make recommendations when it comes to the major actions. And so it's not that control is transferred to a committee, it's the leaning on them, the leverage, the expertise that is transferred.""If a board member really wants to have influence on a particular issue that a committee is undertaking, then join the committee, don't discount their value to the board."26:42 -- On board evaluations. "[W]e are big believers in having objective data. Now, objective data can be quantitative and qualitative, but you still want that objectivity as a way to sort of lead you onto a path of growth. So we like the number side because it helps put a stake in the ground. You can measure progress and critically, you can benchmark to peers, which is something that we find and hear back from our clients is absolutely invaluable." "We have found the act of doing an evaluation with a third party is the biggest step forward."30:48 -- On the Board/CEO relationship. "It's the most important relationship of all. And personally, I'm not a believer that the board's job is simply to hire and fire the CEO. I think that's, in all due respect, an old school perspective."34:25 -- On the role of the Chair or Lead Independent Director. "The role of the chair, independent chair or lead independent is critical. And that's true whether it's a large public company, a small private company and everything in between, because they're often in that role of helping to facilitate the board's contributions, the board's role." "Figuring out where's the line and how [the board can] add value, that tone gets set by the partnership between the CEO and the chair."36:53 -- On CEOs moving to Chairman role. "It is really hard for people to take off one hat and put the other one on. So it really has to be discussed."40:02 -- On the evolution of boardroom diversity. "Another metaphor I often use for boards are tapestries, meaning that you're kind of weaving together different threads. I referred to the team sport earlier, but perhaps the better metaphor really is it's a small symphony, not a big one, but a relatively small symphony where you're bringing different skills, perspectives and ways that board members can contribute that makes the group as a whole stronger. And back to our prior conversation about board chairs, they