Changes

Lead author, Gerry Brown feels that the relationship between the executive members of boards and the independent directors (formerly known as non-executive directors), trustees or governors of organisations is frequently unbalanced. The function of the independent director is to have general oversight of the executive side of the board - to spot when and where things are going wrong - but all too often the relationship is too cosy, too antagonistic or the independent director lacks the knowledge and/or experience to understand what's happening or to know how to intervene. Covid-19 has highlighted the ''failings and weaknesses of leadership and governance'' and you might be tempted to think that these are extraordinary times and that all will be well once we get back to 'normal' but a pandemic was predicted and modelled in the past and there has been a general failure to prepare for what has happened - and is still happening.

In [[The Independent Director: The Non-Executive Director's Guide to Effective Board Presence by Gerry Brown|The Independent Director]], Gerry Brown looked primarily at the Independent Director in business. In ''The Independent Director in Society'', his focus is on the NHS, universities, sporting organisations and charities, which should be run on business lines but often are not. One problem might be the size and composition of boards which might hinder their decision-making ability. The boards tend to look much the same: they're usually older and often retired. The average university board is 60% male and 94% white British. In sport, it's 65% male and 93% white British: it doesn't take much thought to realise that the boards are not representative of their stakeholders.