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Mastering Private to Public Board Excellence

Delivering Strategic Value Across Private and Public Board Structures

Empowering Directors to Exceed Expectations in Any Board Structure

Equip yourself with the knowledge and tools needed to master the complexities of boardroom dynamics today through this interactive, executive-level program designed to provide board members and C-suite executives with new insights and practical strategies for effective board leadership. Rooted in current research and real-world application, participants will learn from governance experts, CEOs, directors, and peers with a variety of board experiences. The program maps the journey in navigating from private to public board service, addressing pivotal challenges and opportunities throughout. 

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Map the Private to Public Board Journey (and Back)

  • Understand Various Corporate Structures

  • Discover strategic value and discuss the board's role in ensuring success

  • Map the changes in board structure and dynamics to fit your boards' current and future challenges

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Address Key Governance Challenges

  • Examine Board Composition, Culture and Refreshment
  • Assess The Board's Role in Strategy
  • Evaluate The Board's Oversight of Risk
  • Explore The Board's Role in CEO Succession Planning
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How You'll Learn in this Program

This highly interactive program is delivered in 3 live virtual sessions, 3 hours each, supported by topical readings and expert videos.

Employing dynamic hands-on exercises, expert-driven discussions and in-depth case studies, the program aims to deliver both a holistic and strategic toolset to leaders looking to provide value in the boardroom in any governance structure or transition from a private or public board seat. 

Take the Next Step in High-Impact Board Leadership

Program Overview:

Session One: Governance for Strategic Advantage

Multiple Board Structures

  • Understand Fiduciary & Advisory Corporate Board Structures
  • Compare Public and Private Boards
  • Assess Board Value/Role of Private Boards in Strategy
  • Navigating Corporate Accountability and Transparency
  • Understanding Reporting Requirements and Recent Corporate Governance Reforms
  • Create a Board Action Plan

Harnessing Board Values and Culture

  • Giving Voice to Values
  • Connecting Corporate Culture to Board Culture
  • Analysis of The Director Selection Board Challenge

Session Two: Board Composition and Refreshment

Board Composition

  • Deep Dive into Leading Practices for Board Composition
  • Break Down Key Governance Challenges and Opportunities
  • Evaluate Board Committee Responsibilities and Independence
  • Strengthening Board Composition Strategy
  • Developing Interview Questions for Prospective Board Members

Board Refreshment, Turnover, and CEO Perspectives

  • Evaluationg Directiors & Understanding Refreshment Approaches
  • CEO Interview: Making of a Board Succession Plan
  • Learn from an Exclusive CEO Roundtable Discussion: Private Company CEOs Talking About the Value of Having a Board From a CEO Perspective

Session Three: Navigating Successions & Transitions

Succession Planning

  • Determine Board and CEO Compensation Policies
  • Analysis of the CEO Succession Board Challenge
  • Deep Dive into Public Company Board Governance and Reporting Requirements

Navigating & Leading Through Transition

  • Mapping The Private-to-Public Journey
  • Conversation with the Lead Director of a Private to Public Firm on Growth Strategies
  • Actionable Steps for Navigating the Transition from Private to Public
Who Should Attend?

C-suite leadership and board executives from all industries and functions who are seeking to deliver value in private or public sector governance roles. 

 

Program Requirements

Participants should have approximately 3-5 years of progressively responsible experience in the c-suite or with a corporate board.

 

Meet Your Instructor

Professor Cynthia Clark
Cynthia Clark
Professor
Management

Prof Cynthia Clark (Ph.D.) is an internationally recognized corporate governance expert spanning multiple industries including real estate, financial services, mutual funds and community banking. She has experience on several corporate boards and on multiple committees including Audit & Finance, Nominating & Governance, and Disclosure Committees. Throughout her career she has focused on analysis of activism, public disclosures and data privacy. She has provided research insights on such high-profile projects as the Gender Diversity Index (incl. all 50 states) and the Census for Women Directors and Executive Officers.

She has worked with multiple CEOs, c-suite executives and boards of directors at organizations such as Cutter/Arthur D. Little, Choate, Hall & Stewart, KPMG, BDO, Morgan Stanley, State Street Corporation and the Hershey Trust Company. From 2016-2018 she served as a board member to the pre & post IPO Origin Bank ($4BN) as part of the team providing governance oversight of the private to public company transition. Cynthia has significant non-profit board experience including having served on the nominating & governance committee and the audit committee of the Boston Public Library Fund. Cynthia is a former bank executive overseeing mutual fund clients and served as a senior investment advisor for a securities firm in New York City.

She has been widely cited in the media on governance issues including The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Institutional Investor, The Boston Globe, CNN, Forbes and Reuters. Cynthia is the John. W. Poduska Professor of Governance at Bentley University.

Faculty Profile

Learn from the Experts

Heather Spilsbury
CEO
5050 Women on Boards

Heather Spilsbury is CEO of 50/50 Women on Boards, a leading global nonprofit dedicated to advancing women in the pipeline to corporate boards. A marketing and operations executive with over 20 years of experience in developing and executing multi-year strategies for leading global brands across various industries, Heather has successfully digitalized, rebranded, and restructured 50/50 Women on Boards, resulting in a 30% growth in our audiences, revenue, and capital assets. She has a proven track record of increasing revenue, profitability, and customer loyalty through creative and experiential marketing, new business development, and digital transformation, and extensive expertise in consumer engagement, digital strategies, and communications to drive growth and innovation. A first-generation Latina, Heather is a passionate advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

James White
Board Chair | Director | CEO | Author | Speaker
The Honest Company

James D. White is a transformational leader with more than 30 years experience as an operating executive in the Consumer Products, Retail, and Restaurant industries. He is the former Chair, President and CEO of Jamba Juice, where he led the successful turnaround and transformation of the company from a made-to-order smoothie shop to a global, healthy active lifestyle brand. In his experience at Jamba Juice and at companies including Gillette, Safeway Stores, Nestlé-Purina PetCare, and Coca Cola, James has gained invaluable experience that has enabled him to become a coveted board member on over 20 public and private boards including Panera Bread, The Honest Company, Simply Good Foods, CAVA, Affirm and Medallia to name a few. 


In 2020, James co-founded Culture Design Lab to develop and guide CEOs and executive leaders to design organizations with purpose. His 30+ years of operational experience, 20+ years of public and private board service and CEO consulting has led him to write his second book. CULTURE DESIGN: How to Build a High-Performing, Resilient Organization with Purpose, authored by James D. White and Krista White will be published by Harvard Business Review Press in November, 2025. This book is a practical framework for CEOs and their executive teams to evaluate culture, learn from dozens of CEO’s and companies who are all-in on intentional culture shifts and then apply the framework to enhance vision and strategies to better align with an intentionally designed culture. It is available to preorder on Amazon.

Lisa Spadafora Thompson
Private Company Board Member & Committee Chair | Non-Profit Board Chair |  Pricing & Profitable Growth Expert | Entrepreneur 

Lisa has served on six corporate boards and multiple nonprofit boards (including higher ed.) Her board experience ranges from owner/operator to ESOP to private-equity boards. She has sat on several committees, and served as committee chair, for Nominating & Governance, Finance & Audit, Human Capital & Compensation, Risk Management, and Succession Planning.

Lisa is Founder & CEO of Sturbridge Growth Partners, Inc., a boutique consultancy developing and implementing pricing strategies in business-to-business markets including technology, industrial and process manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, and B2B services. She founded Sturbridge after taking an early retirement from Deloitte LLC where she served as a Senior Partner in the Strategy & Operations practice. Her nonprofit board experience has led to hands-on work with Boston's homeless population and a commitment to addressing poverty and unemployment in the inner city.

Anthony O’Reilly
Audit Committee Member | Chief Ethics Officer | Assurance Partner

Anthony O'Reilly is a financial expert that became a leading voice on business ethics and conduct, audit and change governance in regulated businesses under duress. With a deep foundation in financial accounting and controls, including as a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit Partner, Anthony was selected by two major global organizations to help rebuild their legal and public reputations, first at Siemens, AG in the wake of their bribery settlement and then as the first Chief Ethics Officer for State Street Corporation.  

In his roles at PwC, Siemens and State Street, Anthony increasingly worked on driving sustained business and organizational performance through the mechanics that manage culture in organizations under the stress of merger assimilation, regulatory pressure and generational change.

Anthony has lived and worked under different corporate governance cultures in the UK, Hong Kong, Germany and the US.  Anthony is a member of the Audit Committee for a private asset management Firm and an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Carla Vernón
CEO and Board Director at The Honest Company
The Honest Company

Carla Vernón is the CEO and Board Director of The Honest Company (NASDAQ: HNST) a personal care company dedicated to creating clean and sustainably designed products. In her role as the Chief Executive Officer, Carla became one of the first Afro-Latine/o/a CEOs of a U.S. publicly traded company. 

In her role as CEO of Honest, Carla brings her legacy of business transformation and growth along with experiences that reflect the diversity of Honest’s consumers. Carla is responsible for defining the enterprise growth strategy and driving a financial and business transformation that delivers value for Honest's many stakeholders. 

Prior to joining Honest, Carla was Vice President of Consumables Categories at Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), where she had P&L, Supply Chain, and Technology responsibility for Everyday Essentials categories including: Household Products, Beauty, Baby, Wellness, Food and Beverage categories. Before joining Amazon, Carla was a Corporate Officer at General Mills (NYSE: GIS) where in her most recent as Operating Unit President of The Natural and Organic portfolio she led General Mills to become the second largest manufacturer of organic food and initiated the food industries largest ever commitment to advancing regenerative agriculture. 

Carla holds a bachelors degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University and an MBA from The University of Texas, McCombs School. Carla serves on the Board of Trustees for The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino, is a founding CEO Advisory Board Member of Harvard Business Review Executive and recently completed her tenure as a Trustee of Princeton University.

PROGRAM DETAILS

Program Dates

Delivered in 3 live virtual sessions, 3 hours each, supported by self-paced study and blending current research with real world application and expert-led discussions.

October 29th | 2025

November 5th | 2025

November 12th | 2025

Program Cost: $2,850

  • Program fee includes tuition and instructional materials.
  • Register 30+ days in advance for a 20% discount.
  • Register 14+ days in advance to receive a 10% discount.
  • Bentley Alumni receive a 50% enrollment discount.

Contact us for your discount code: execed@bentley.edu.

Group Enrollment 30% Discount

Empower your leaders to learn together and grow together. Bentley offers a special 30% group rate discount to companies that send 3 or more participants.

Bentley Refund Policy

Bentley University will grant a full refund for cancellations received at least 30 days before the program start date. A 50% refund will be given for those cancellations made prior to fourteen days of the program start date. No refund will be granted for those cancellations received after that time.

Supporting Our Community

50% Discount for Alumni, Non-Profits, Service Members, Law Enforcement, and Job Seekers in Transition. Inquire for more info: execed@bentley.edu.

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