Hosted by: Dan Siciliano, Associate Dean, Stanford Law School

• What are the best practices of a highly-effective board?
• What are the warning signs that a board is becoming dysfunctional?
• What can you do to change direction when you believe you need to?
• What role can you play in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of your board?

Hosted by: Jim Balassone, Executive-in-Residence, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University

Richard M. Levy, PhD, of Varian Medical Systems shares anecdotes from his past experience of how boards can affect companies for good or ill.

In Memoriam, Mike Hackworth

It was with great sadness that we learned the news last weekend of the passing of SVNACD board member Mike Hackworth.

Mike was one of the great pioneers of the Silicon Valley, having built two of the great semiconductor companies in this area’s history: Signetics (now NXP Semiconductor) and Cirrus Logic. CEO and then board chairman at Cirrus for over 27 years, Mike grew that company from its earliest stages. In the process, Mike and Cirrus Logic invented the world’s first PC graphics chips and was one of the first fabless semiconductor companies and one of the earliest companies in the mixed signal semiconductor market.

Mike Hackworth joined the board of directors of the SVNACD back in 2006 – one of many not-for-profit endeavors Mike and wife Joan were involved in. In the process, Mike helped us to reshape our organization and to grow many times bigger than we were before. With Mike’s help, we attracted our first corporate sponsors and many of the volunteers who work with us today. Mike believed strongly in the role of boards in companies and charitable organizations and worked tirelessly with us to ensure that board directors had a place to learn the skills necessary for good and ethical governance.

The SVNACD is proud to have known and worked with this incredible man. He took pride in his work and made those of us around him want to do better at the work we did as well. Mike Hackworth was a hero of the Silicon Valley, and we are lucky to have known him.

–Tribute by Mark Lonergan

Hosted by: Jim Balassone, Executive-in-Residence, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University

Richard M. Levy, PhD, of Varian Medical Systems discusses how the board can safeguard the “soul” of a company.

Please take 2.75 minutes to experience the new “Why Join NACD?” video in action.

Hosted by: Mark Lonergan, Founder and Managing Partner of Lonergan Partners

In recent years, virtually all boards acknowledge that an annual board evaluation is required by “best practices.” How that evaluation should be done, by the board members themselves or by outside “experts” still remains an open matter. And whether these evaluations, either internal or external, are in most cases useful in improving board performance or in “weeding out” nonproductive directors, is also a matter open to debate. Which evaluation practices offer the best chance of improving board performance? Which offer the best chance of persuading a noncontribuing director to not stand for re-election?