Donna and Boardwise team, thank you for offering such a great program, I loved my experience! To folks considering the course, I just finished my certification program with Donna and Team and loved it! It is an amazing and informative program. From the content to the speakers to the orchestration and scheduling all aspects of this series are top notch and well worth the time and cost.
"BoardWise's certification course is just what I needed. The instructors are amazing! I am finding the practical training on how to think and communicate as a board member to be tremendously valuable."
Boardwise has curated a series of insightful, stimulating sessions with an impressive cohort. In them, Donna introduces topical experts, current issues, and typical practices, all for us to be more effective in the boardroom. It us helpful, and I enjoyed it.
The BoardWise Certification course was an invaluable experience for me in terms of how much I learned at a rapid pace. I am so impressed with the level of expertise of the guest speakers such as Brian Barnier, John Kindervay, and Jen McClure. The relevant topics - Cyber Security, Risk & Compliance, Digital Transformation- were framed in discussion around the business implications and role of board directors to apply critical thinking to ask the right questions.
"Donna is undaunted by complexity. In challenging discussions, she is adept at shifting tension into productive channels of inquiry. She is resilient and has a deep-seated belief in her ability to overcome obstacles in executing plans. Her recommendations are pragmatic and often creatively align multiple ideas into a holistic approach. She uses humor and fun to create a relaxed and exciting atmosphere within which to work. She and her team offer amazing, valuable solutions every time."
“We recently concluded our CEO assessment process. This year we chose to work with BoardWise and specifically with Donna Hamlin. it was an excellent decision. The process was run flawlessly, it was thorough, it was engaging, it was insightful… as the chairman of the Human Capital Committee of our company, I received the feedback from the participants (Board members, senior executives and the CEO himself), and it was unanimously positive, and significant improvement over the previous approach. I really appreciate the professionalism of Donna and her team in helping us complete this most important process.”
Donna, Nola and the team at BoardWise have been very helpful in our process of forming a larger board, in response to direction from an incoming investor.
In short, Boardwise is an awesome combination of recruiter, advisor and friend, at the very most critical time - when you are expanding or changing the role of your board as your company grows.
"For any board related work that you need, Boardwise’s team should be your go-to people."
"After several years of attempts to improve our "in-house" board evaluation process, we searched for a professional board evaluation firm. CareSource has grown quite rapidly from a midsize regional Medicaid HMO to a 2 million member, 5 state multi-billion dollar entity. We realized we needed a full evaluation of all aspects of our board/committee structure, multi-board organization and our overall board governance. After speaking with BoardWise and evaluating its well-established processes, and their extensive customer list, we decided to contract with Boardwise for a full board evaluation process. The entire experience was very positive. They are entirely professional, extremely well experienced and the process they use is substantive and sophisticated. The results brought to the Board and the CEO, proved extremely helpful and has set our Board on a course for significant improvement in multiple respects. Our overall governance has already improved with continued organizational and governance improvements in the near future."
"The Board Access program has both helped me structure my thinking about what type of board position fits with my experience, interests and ambitions today and then developed my relevant brand and board profile to match my ideal fit. I found the board simulation and my time with my coach, Murray Cook, to be incredibly valuable is testing and evolving my thinking and skills to serve as a director.”
"Boardwise is such an asset. It brings just the right directors with experience and smart ideas to help grow our business and be a better board."
“Boardwise offers great support to early stage companies to structure their boards. They help you think strategically about how to build a board and how to make it an asset of the company. They helped me professionalize my whole organization. It was a great fortune that they came in to help.”
"If you are considering a board role, work with Boardwise. They help you understand what you can bring to the board and the role boards play in governance versus operations. People making that mental transition will be well positioned for a board role. Their Board Access program makes you ready to succeed."
"Boardwise taught me why we needed to have a board, at the early stage of my company. It helped us get off on the right foot. They also coached me about how I was responding to some of the candidates. I had, in some cases, more negative, maybe overly negative responses, simply based on different approaches and different styles, so I learned something through that process. I'm very, very happy that they helped identify and secure two highly qualified serious seed investors."
"An unexpected surprise is the way Boardwise thinks about talent. They help identify complementary skills and styles and the personality profiling they do shows how each person solves problems and makes decisions. This self-assessment makes you think about how to create compatibility with other people. When they use the assessment with candidates, it really helped me screen for what I wanted and needed. I really wanted a board that was at a strategic level and not so focused on the operational piece. They helped me find the perfect people."
“Thanks, Boardwise, for your guidance on our Board Readiness Program. We learned so much from you with your Board Bona Fide® tool and our work together on the Women on Boards project!”
"If you want a very strategic human resources consultant., turn to this team right away. They are effective with the senior management team and helpful to them in aligning human capital with the current and future strategy. They are excellent at organizational design, evaluation of talent, pipeline and succession planning, and executive coaching/change management. Their experience ranges from small companies to Fortune 100 in size and complexity, and they are able to provide a value-add service to move a company to optimize its current situation and build-out the capabilities for the future."
"Boardwise's board simulation program was amazing! The facilitation was deep and relevant. I was so impressed with how Dr. Hamlin gave feedback to each woman in a way that supported and built upon what she saw from her in her style, and with such careful evidence that said she really was taking it all in! Her knowledge is also clearly very extensive and it shows she has been building on it over many years and interactions. And finally, her warmth and openness was just so incredibly disarming and wonderful. Sooooo Thank you! :)"
"They provided a complete turnkey solution to the most significant and complex corporate initiative we have undertaken to date: They helped us increase our regional retail presence 300% through the strategic acquisition of assets from a competitor twice our size"
"Watermark Board Access Program helped me learn and recognize the biggest thing I needed to do to get ready for board service was to acknowledge that I was ready for board service."
"When we adopt strategies they recommend, we meet our goals and objectives without fumbling the ball. We constantly go back to them."
"When I was searching for a Director in my early stage start-up, Donna Hamlin found an experienced board member who has been both the founder of a publicly traded company and on the board of several start-ups and publicly traded companies. I could not be happier with the match that Boardwise provided. I recommend their Board Bona Fide registry and services to any executive or board looking for quality solutions!"
"This team saved us from making a seriously expensive mistake in strategy. We had planned to invest in adding drive-through pharmacy service at all our stores to keep up with our key competitor. Based on their CASCADE research, they recommended we pivot and compete in a new and different way. It worked!"
"I have gained new insight into my career development by participating in the Board Access program. The assessment, coaching and simulations have been invaluable in opening my perspective about what more I can do to effectively prepare for a position as a Board member. My coach, Donna Hamlin, is an incredible resource and brings a global set of experience and expertise across industries and geographies to help you think broadly but also engage locally in your career. Every senior woman should go through the Board Access program!”
"Their expert guidance and financial acumen saved our company over $200 million in potential tax liabilities. They have the proven talent and experience to deliver optimal results. I highly recommend them."
“Boardwise is brilliant. The experts there are passionate about reinforcing corporate governance as vital corporate success. Their incredible contribution comes from their unstoppable drive to create value for stockholders, customers and employees across the globe. If you intend to increase the accountability of your company and to avoid massive disasters before they occur, talk to Boardwise!”