What does a director of a privately held company do? What role do you play in providing the governance so critical to a company’s success? 

Serving as a director of a privately held, family-owned business is not that different from serving on a public company board with respect to good governance. However, there are some unique circumstances that impact your ability to govern. 

First, in a family-owned business the shareholder group is well known, considerably smaller than in a public company, and can have a clear and direct impact on the business. 

Second, owners of family businesses often have been successful over decades and have a strong point of view on what drives success. Oftentimes, these owners have broad voting rights that must be considered in governing the company. 

Finally, many times a family-owned business spans generations, with future generations having a vested interest in the sustainability of the business while the older generations might be more risk-averse in their strategy. 

Consequently, directors on a family-owned company board must govern as a fiduciary and manage risk as a fiduciary while at the same time keeping in mind the interests of the family, the shareholders, the management, and what is in the best interest of the shareholders and the company itself. Doing so requires the ability to communicate effectively with truth and grace while maintaining your integrity in your duty to care and duty to loyalty.  Most importantly, it requires the skill to build relationships and navigate the unique attributes of the family and owners.  

As noted earlier, private company director roles are in many ways similar. but there are significant differences that are important to recognize. 

Private company directors often have a longer planning horizon than public company directors, allowing them to have more tenacity and commitment to their strategic plans. Private company directors are able to build genuine and intimate relationships with the shareholders and the management team along with the CEO. These relationships allow the board to act in the best interest of those shareholders with clarity and purpose. Most importantly, private company directors are able to get immediate and direct feedback from shareholders, the CEO and management. All of these factors result in an ability to have an immediate impact on the companies we serve.  

How does your experience and expertise in corporate governance for privately owned companies play into what you do as an entrepreneur-in-residence at the NVA? 

The work being done at the NVA to create our next generation of companies and company leaders is incredible, and I have the opportunity to react to the strategy for the NVA in many of the same ways I react as a director on my boards. In addition, I am able to deploy my experiences as a CEO, C-Suite Leader, Entrepreneur, and now Director to help student teams learn how to start and build companies, how to think about capital allocation, conduct competitive analyses, connect with channels and sales strategies, and understand the leverage points in leveraging their ideas to create companies.   

While not all ideas will evolve into a business, the learning process through these experiences ultimately creates better students for employment. Finally, I love the idea of the NVA and I do all

I can to publish, teach and encourage the growth of the NVA so we get more teams, more pitch competitions and more funding for students. 

Finally, you believe in giving back – to offer a hand up to those who are less fortunate. Can you talk about that a bit? 

A lack of resources shouldn’t be a factor when it comes to a given individual’s ability to get an education – it is not a measure of their intellect or potential to contribute to society. In addition to a perpetual scholarship with Auburn University, our family started a family foundation in 2018 to fund underprivileged kids with college tuition.  While small today, we have managed to fund over $100,000 in tuition for kids graduating from Propel Charter Schools in Pittsburgh and another $25,000 in tuition for a Christian school in Wickenburg, AZ.    

In addition, in 2018 we established the EMBA Class of 2017 Endowed Scholarship in Memory of Adam Sturgeon.  We established the scholarship to support our classmate Donnie Sturgeon, whose son Adam, then a rising senior at Auburn, was killed in a car accident while heading home for Thanksgiving break.