Becoming a Public Company Director: Interview Strategies

by Tracy E. Houston —

Becoming a Public Company Director: Interview Strategies

THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT CHALLENGE you have as a candidate for a public company board seat is the ability to create a spot-on, board-specific presentation of your background. This Board Guru™ handbook, Becoming a Public Company Director: Interview Strategies, authored by board advisory consultant Tracy E. Houston, is a first-of-its-kind book that compiles comprehensive, easy-to-follow content with details on both how to present and what to present in a director interview. You will learn actionable ideas to cement the impression you want to make with real-world tales from the field. Because the format provided can be used for any size board,

Becoming a Public Company Director: Interview Strategies will find a home on any director candidate’s short list of handy references.

Our goal is for you to develop a “relevance telescope” that highlights what matters and greatly improves your effectiveness in the interview process. This is a ready reference that you will return to again and again for the crucial information you need to excel in the interview process. This book will help you:

• Gain inside knowledge from never before written details about this closely-held process to create a spot-on, board-specific presentation of your background;
• Sharpen your interview skills with insights into specific strategies that distinguish the very best candidates for board seats;
• Build a distinctive board-level value proposition to increase your competitive position;
• Expand insights and actionable ideas for greater impact with high-level tips to that distinguish you from your peers and move from random to controlled personal branding;
• Increase confidence with critical step-by-step details about all aspects of director search and selection process;
• Capitalize on guidance to anticipate how interview questions and company politics influence the complex decision-making process; and
• Avoid common mistakes from blind spots in the top ten due diligence mistakes made by director candidates.

Tracy E. Houston, M.A. is the President of Board Resources Services, LLC. She is a refined specialist in board consulting and executive coaching with a heartfelt passion for rethinking performance, teams, and the boardroom.

Tracy’s “deep smarts” of the boardroom’s ecosystem are gained from first-hand participation as a former sitting director, consultant to boards and author of the Board Guru™ eBook Series With nine years of experience executing board search and governance based consulting engagements, her boardroom background, along with key insights of the politics of leadership and the competitive pressures of today's global marketplace, is embodied in a roll-up-your-sleeves style.

Tracy, with six years of experience as a sitting director, was one of the nation’s youngest women to sit on a board in the electric utility sector where she provided leadership during a period of industry change driven by deregulation, privatization, technology and globalization forces. She is the past chairman of the board of the International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology. In 2008 she was inducted into one of Colorado's local women's hall of fame groups.

Extensively published, Tracy has written hundreds of blogs that are featured on several award- winning websites. Frequently quoted, Tracy has recently appeared in Corporate Counsel’s In-House Straight, Energy Wire and After Nines. Her articles have been seen in many publications from The Denver Business Journal, Financial Executives International Magazine and Computer Weekly.

Tracy’s formal education includes a Bachelor of Science, Business Management from Metropolitan State College. Her graduate studies were completed at the University of Denver. She is a patron member of the Colorado Bar Association. Tracy is an avid hiker and recently backpacked in the Grand Canyon.