About
Some people have studied boards. Patrick Dunne has spent a career inside them, advising them, and writing the books that directors keep on their desks. In this GBI Fireside Chat, our Founder and Executive Chairman, Wassim Karkabi, sits down with Patrick for an honest conversation about what actually makes a board work, how directors get chosen and kept, and where governance is heading next. If you sit on a board, chair one, or intend to, this is an hour worth holding. Codes and checklists tell you what a board should do. They rarely tell you how to do it well, or how to navigate the moments that no induction pack prepares you for. That "how" is Patrick Dunne's life's work.
Across the hour, Wassim and Patrick will explore four themes chosen for their direct value to working and aspiring directors:
- What separates a good board from a great one. The human dynamics, the chair and CEO relationship, and the culture that no governance code can mandate.
- How directors actually get chosen, and kept. What chairs and nomination committees genuinely look for, and what turns a new appointee into an indispensable one.
- The judgment calls that define a director. Real boardroom dilemmas, navigated live, including situations drawn from our own region.
- The board agenda for the next decade. Diversity, sustainability, technology and AI oversight, and how the global governance conversation lands in the Gulf and emerging markets.
There will also be time for live questions from the audience.
What you will take away
- A clearer sense of what "good" looks like in a boardroom, and how to recognise it from the inside
- A practical read on how boards select directors, and how to position yourself to be found and invited
- Confidence in handling the difficult, ambiguous moments that test every director's judgment
- A forward view of the shifts most likely to reshape your board responsibilities over the coming years
