Who didn’t apply for the role?

Victoria Carter ONZM, CFInstD

When boards appoint directors, they often focus on finding the right person. A more useful question might be: who didn’t apply? 

According to experienced director and chair Victoria Carter ONZM, CFInstD, that question sits at the heart of good governance.

“The reason why I’m a big supporter of advertising, whether it’s for a director, a CEO, or somebody in the executive team, is that if you don’t advertise, you don’t know who else is out there that might be better than the person you’re thinking of shoulder tapping.”  

In New Zealand’s relatively small governance community, personal networks remain important. Many appointments begin with a recommendation, a conversation or a name that comes up around the board table.

The risk is that boards stop looking too soon.

Looking beyond familiar networks

Michelle Pearson, Manager, Board Appointments at the IoD, regularly sees boards searching for a specific skill set or background, only to discover stronger candidates they had not initially considered.

“One of the biggest assets to a board is diversity – diversity of thought, cultural diversity, gender, experience and age.”

She believes boards can unintentionally narrow their options when they recruit only through existing networks.

“There’s an element of bias removed” through an independent process, she says. 

Carter has observed the same dynamic throughout her governance career.

“The strongest organisations, whether it’s the board table or the executive team, are the ones that have lots of people around the table that don’t all think the same.”  

That does not happen by accident.

A board may know exactly what capability it is looking for, but unless it casts the net wider, it risks overlooking candidates who bring a different perspective, industry experience or approach to problem-solving.

Transparency matters

For Carter, a robust appointment process is about more than finding candidates. “It removes bias. It improves optics. It increases diversity and inclusion.”  

It also shows that appointments are being made on merit.

“It strengthens the board’s due diligence and it demonstrates transparency to everybody – to your external stakeholders and to your team.”  

That transparency becomes particularly important in organisations with public visibility or stakeholder scrutiny.

“I think the wider an organisation’s public accountability, the greater the expectation that senior appointments or director appointments will be openly contested, merit-based and transparent.”  

Carter says stakeholders notice when appointments appear to have bypassed a proper process.

“When I see a charity announce board appointments and I know the role has not appeared through the normal channels, I wonder why they never opened up the process. It makes me think less of the organisation.”  

The candidate who might not have applied

Last year, Carter was appointed chair of The Packaging Forum following an IoD-managed appointment process.

The experience reinforced the value of looking beyond the candidates already known to a board.

“When you’ve got a large database and you’re actively searching, you can find people who may never have considered the role otherwise,” she says.  

After an initial assessment process, Carter progressed through interviews with board representatives before being appointed.  

Her experience reflects a challenge many boards face: some highly capable candidates may not be actively looking for governance opportunities at the time a vacancy arises.

Pearson says this is one of the advantages of a structured recruitment process. Together with advertising, it helps boards identify and assess candidates who may not have been visible through existing networks alone.  

When a board wants to strengthen capability, widening the search can produce a very different shortlist from one built solely through personal connections. 

When appointments go wrong

Poor appointments can affect more than board performance. They can also affect the relationship between the board, management and the wider organisation.

Carter says boards occasionally appoint people who do not fully understand the distinction between governance and management.

“You have people who are disruptive, who think their job is to catch the chief executive out at every board meeting,” she says.  

Others may undermine organisational culture without intending to.

“You have people who actually undermine the organisation and don’t even realise they’re doing it.”  

That is why Pearson encourages boards to think carefully about capability needs and cultural fit before recruitment begins.

“Boards need to be clear on their skills matrix and their capability gaps.”  

Without that preparation, recruitment can become a search for familiar faces rather than future capability. 

A process boards can defend

One of Carter’s strongest arguments for a structured appointment process is that it creates a decision that can withstand scrutiny.

“It’s a defensible process,” she says. “If anything goes wrong, you can point to the fact that you followed a proper process.”  

That does not guarantee every appointment will succeed. Governance never comes with guarantees.

It does give the board confidence that it considered a broad field of candidates, assessed them fairly and made its decision on merit.

For boards facing a director vacancy, the strongest candidate may not be the person already known to the board. It may be the person who has not yet been considered. 

Our expertise

Michelle Pearson, Board Appointments Manager, IoD

The IoD’s board appointments services are led by Board Appointments Manager Michelle Pearson. 

Michelle oversees director search and recruitment, Director Vacancies, Director CV reviews and facilitated workshops. With more than 20 years’ experience in executive search and talent acquisition, she has worked across public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Michelle has partnered with NZX-listed companies, Crown entities, local government, and community organisations to deliver strategic appointments that strengthen governance capability and diversity.

Michelle has supported major national initiatives including Three Waters Reform, the National Transition Unit within the Department of Internal Affairs, the Department of Corrections’ electronic monitoring programme and Waka Kotahi’s organisational transformation.  She helps boards identify candidates whose capability, perspective and values fit the organisation’s needs. That can include candidates who may not be obvious at first, but who bring the experience and judgement a board needs.

To discuss board appointments, contact Michelle on 021 027 14788 or michelle.pearson@iod.org.nz