In my newest book, The Board-Savvy CEO, I treat the board chair-CEO working relationship as one of the preeminent keys to keeping the board-CEO partnership healthy. CDTA’s Board Chair, David Stackrow (who was named APTA’s Board Member of the Year in 2009), and CEO, Carm Basile, make up one of the highest-impact, most solid board chair-CEO leadership teams I’ve observed over my 25 years of work with nonprofit and public boards. Their leadership success has a lot to do with their mutual respect, creative and flexible division of labor, and frequent communication. It also helps that Dave is 100 percent committed to CDTA’s success and to strong CEO leadership, while Carm is a fervent advocate for strong board leadership who welcomes collaboration with his board chair at CDTA.
Dave’s and Carm’s recent podcast is a very useful primer for CEOs who want to turn their board chairs into real governing partners. Check it out if you haven’t heard it.
I’d love to hear from other CEOs about their experience in partnering with their board chairs.
