Many feel it, but few say it out loud: Board recruiting isn’t working the way it should. Boards question whether they’re truly accessing new talent or simply recycling familiar names. At the same time, highly qualified leaders wonder why they’re never in the mix.
Both perspectives are right. The process is hardwired to consistently surface the same people.
THE NUMBERS TELL THE STORY
The pattern is clear and persistent: Boards largely recruit former CEOs and CFOs who are already known within the board ecosystem.
That is predictable. We’re wired to minimize risk, and “new” often gets labeled as risky.
The data backs it up. In 2025, Heidrick & Struggles reported that 92% of new Fortune 500 board seats (379 total) went to candidates with prior CEO, CFO, or COO experience. Spencer Stuart finds that 30% of new S&P 500 directors were active or retired CEOs.
Boards are under pressure to get it right and will optimize for familiarity, with title as the proxy for certainty.
WHY “NEW” IS SCARY
Boards question why they aren’t seeing new candidates. Let’s be honest about why it’s true, so we can find solutions.
The issue isn’t that boards are not inspirational or biased (though everyone has a bit of the latter). Board members serve together for years, sometimes a decade or more. The stakes of a bad fit are high, as board removal is genuinely difficult and politically messy. So risk aversion isn’t irrational; it’s the strategy.
Prior board experience and relationships are signals of safety. Interviews and assessments can tell you something, but not enough. The reality is most people aren’t that good at evaluating candidates. Back-channeling or relying on relationships reassures the room that this person has already been trusted and has delivered. That’s the credentialing function of your first board position—not the skills you learn there, but the proof it represents.
WHAT ACTUALLY DRIVES THE DECISION
Here’s what actually happens behind closed doors when a board searches for a new director.
Korn Ferry puts the number plainly: “70% of all board appointments are made through networking, not through executive search firms.” Other data shows that 65% of directors are appointed directly through a prior connection, or someone in the room already knows and vouches for them. Only 10% come directly through a search firm. Another 10% come through a posted role.
The search, in most cases, is not about discovery. It’s about verification. It’s confirming what board members already want. When a sitting director says “I know exactly who you need for this seat,” that conversation and search is often over before the search brief is written. If you’re not known to someone in that room, you are likely not in the running.
THE REAL SOLUTION
If appointments are driven by trust and personal familiarity, then the answer is straightforward: Build trust and familiarity before the moment of seeking, not during it.
This sounds obvious. Very few boards actually do it.
Boards serious about seeing new talent cannot compress the trust-building process into a six-week search window. You will keep hiring the same people because familiarity is the selection criterion, and familiarity takes time to build. If you only ever meet new people when you need them, you will never actually trust them enough to appoint them.
The conversation you want to have is the one where there’s nothing on the table. No open seat, no transaction, no pressure. That’s the conversation where real trust gets built.
By the time a board search is live, “new talent” are strangers asking for something. Before the search, they’re a fascinating new executive you get to build a new relationship with.
CASE STUDIES FOR SUCCESS
There are several firms that take this approach, and the results speak for themselves. Their operating philosophy is simple: Know the talent before you need it. But philosophy without mechanics is just aspiration. They build the actual infrastructure. One public tech company had the following results over 12 months: two new board directors, one new C-suite executive, and two advisors.
What that requires:
1. Intentional relationship building. Even when you don’t have a seat.
2. A designated home for relationships. Advisory boards, structured networks, “friends of the firm.” Without a formal place where prospective directors get to know the company before you need them, it won’t scale.
3. An owner. Building relationships of genuine mutual value is a skill. It is not the same as sending quarterly newsletters or maintaining a contact list. The person doing this needs to be good at building and maintaining relationships with real reciprocity over time.
4. Honesty about what this is. When you bring someone into your network proactively, be clear: This is a longer-term relationship, not a pipeline. No false promises, no implied quid pro quos.
5. Operational infrastructure. Keeping profiles current, staying in touch meaningfully, tracking where relationships stand, prioritizing who to reconnect with and when—this is where most good intentions collapse.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Board recruiting doesn’t need another diversity initiative. It doesn’t need a new assessment tool. It needs boards and their advisors to reckon honestly with how decisions actually get made and then build the infrastructure to change the inputs before decisions happen, not after.
The firms and boards that invest in this will build deeper, more trusted, and more diverse networks. Everyone else will continue to recycle the same names and wonder why nothing changes.
So the real question is simple: Are you building relationships before you need them, or waiting until it’s already too late?Tami Rosen is an executive, board member, and advisor to tech and finance companies.
David Boehmer is founder and CEO of Banff Advisors.