Out in December 2026

The Gatekeeper's Chair

A Practitioner's Guide to Leading the Nomination and Remuneration Committee

by Wassim Karkabi

Out in December 2026. Paperback, hardcover and Kindle on Amazon.

Reserve your copy GCC Board and NRC Chairs: claim a free copy
Front cover of The Gatekeeper's Chair by Wassim Karkabi

Written for the NRC Chair's job, as it is done

The Nomination and Remuneration Committee decides who sits on the board and who runs the company. It sets what they are paid, plans who comes next, judges how they perform, and makes sure directors keep up. The NRC Chair leads that work, usually alongside other roles and other boards.

The Gatekeeper's Chair is written for that job. It works through the decisions as they reach the committee's agenda: the seat to fill, the pay policy to approve, the succession plan to test, the evaluation to commission, and the development gap to close. It is written by a practitioner, from more than twenty years in board and C-suite search and from the NRC Chair's seat.

The book is built on the Five Pillars of NRC Governance™, a framework Wassim Karkabi created to show how the committee's five jobs connect.

See the framework

What is inside

The book opens with the NRC in context, gives one part to each pillar, and ends with a Toolkit you can put to work.

  • Part I. The NRC in context. The rise of the committee, the five pillars, and the role of the NRC Chair.
  • Part II. Nomination. Building the board, diversity beyond tokenism, and senior executive appointments.
  • Part III. Remuneration. Pay design, say on pay, and how compensation links to ESG.
  • Part IV. Succession. CEO succession, board succession, and succession in the age of AI.
  • Part V. Evaluation. Board evaluation, evaluating the CEO, and more.
  • Part VI. Development. The NRC's role in designing and overseeing development for the board, and the areas where directors need it most, such as AI, cybersecurity, ESG and culture.

The Toolkit: ten practical tools

Templates and checklists to adapt to your own board, rules and committee.

  1. A model NRC charter
  2. A board skills matrix template
  3. An annual NRC calendar
  4. A CEO succession planning framework
  5. A board evaluation methodology guide
  6. A director candidate assessment scorecard
  7. A governance competence audit
  8. An NRC Chair's pre-meeting checklist
  9. A sample NRC report to the board
  10. A self-assessment

Who it is for

  • NRC Chairs, whether new to the role or several years into it.
  • NRC members, and directors who expect to join the committee.
  • Board Chairs, who appoint the NRC and rely on its work.
  • Company secretaries and governance leads, who run the committee's calendar and papers.
  • CEOs and CHROs, who work with the committee on appointments, pay and succession.
  • Shareholders and family enterprise boards, who want to know what a well-run NRC looks like.

About the author

Portrait of Wassim Karkabi, author of The Gatekeeper's Chair.

Wassim Karkabi is Founder and Executive Chairman of Global Board Institute, and Managing Partner and Board Director at Stanton Chase, Middle East and Greater China. Wassim is also Non-Executive Chairman of Data Slot and of Spantrek, and a Non-Executive Director of Ekuiplus. Today Wassim serves as a Non-Executive Director and NRC Chair.

Wassim has spent more than twenty years in board and C-suite search, with around 1,900 board and C-suite search assignments for over 1,200 companies and boards. The work covers the GCC, North Africa, the Levant, Asia, Europe, the Americas and South Africa. About one in five assignments is board advisory work: board evaluation, composition, compensation, governance and terms of reference design, and C-suite evaluations.

Wassim created the Five Pillars of NRC Governance, the framework at the centre of this book.

Reserve your copy

The Gatekeeper's Chair is out in December 2026, in paperback, in hardcover and on Kindle. The Amazon listing is not live yet. Leave your details and we will send you one email when the book is available on Amazon. We will not use your details for anything else.

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The first 100 Board and NRC Chairs in the GCC

We are setting aside a free copy of The Gatekeeper's Chair for the first 100 serving Board Chairs or NRC Chairs in the GCC who register. Copies are posted after publication to addresses in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.

How it works

  • Register below with your details and your current position.
  • We check each registration against the role, using the company and LinkedIn profile you give us.
  • If your place is confirmed, we tell you by email.
  • Once 100 places are confirmed, the offer closes.

There is no cost and no obligation.

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Please include your country code. We use it only to deliver your copy.

We use it to confirm your role.

Registering does not confirm a place. We confirm places by email.

Questions

When is it out?

In December 2026.

Which formats?

Paperback, hardcover and Kindle, on Amazon.

Who qualifies for a free copy?

A serving Board Chair or NRC Chair with a mailing address in the GCC: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman.

Is there a cost or obligation?

No.

How is my data used?

Only to confirm and send your copy and, if you tick the box, to send you GBI insights. If you reserve a copy, we use your details to send one email when the book is on Amazon, and nothing else. See the privacy notice.

Back to the Five Pillars of NRC Governance

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