The reality check every CIO needs before seeking a board seat

When Larry Quinlan retired as global CIO of Deloitte in 2021, he considered some romantic notions like running a nonprofit or becoming a university professor. After some due diligence, though, he followed a different path: boards of directors. 

For Wayne Shurts, who like Quinlan is a CIO Hall of Fame inductee, the decision to join boards came sooner. Shurts was among the first wave of IT leaders to join public-company boards during his tenure as CIO of Sysco. 

In an era where boards are plucking technology executives quicker than ever, many CIOs see directorships as their next career ambition. But the stark reality is board service isn’t for everyone. And many if not most CIOs are not well-rounded enough to reach that apex. 

“CIOs think technology will get them to the boardroom,” says Shurts, who has served on multiple public- and private-company boards. “Yes, more boards want tech expertise, but you have to provide the right knowledge, breadth, and depth on topics that matter to their businesses.” 

Art Hopkins, who’s global head of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Technology Officer Practice and also conducts CEO and board searches, agrees. “The basic eligibility requirement for serving on a board is that you’re a well-rounded business executive who spikes deep in some area that’s relevant to the board,” he says. “A lot of CIOs aren’t as broad as they think they are.” 

Conversations with experts like Hopkins, as well as several CIO-turned-board-members, reveal some key issues IT leaders face when striving for a directorship. But they also shed light on the most practical and effective ways to position themselves for the role. 

The root of motivation

In his role as a faculty member in Russell Reynolds’ Next-Gen Director program, a year-long program that helps prepare CXOs for board service, Hopkins asks three questions of participants: 

1. Why do you want to be on a board in the first place? 
2. What’s the board-level niche of expertise for which you’re in the 99^th percentile of your peer group? 
3. Given the board is the CEO’s boss, how are you uniquely qualified to be part of it? 

Answering all three convincingly is a difficult task, even for the most confident IT leaders. And have no doubt that there are landmines built into each question. For example, if compensation is a big driver for why CIOs want to be on boards, that’s probably a non-starter. Likewise, giving technical, tactical answers tied to what puts you in the elite percentile of your global peers won’t win you points. 

Quinlan has long championed the importance of technological expertise. But he knew early in his journey that boards wanted far more than a card-carrying CIO, he says. Understanding the business. The ability to ask questions of the executive suite. Deep knowledge of the governance process. The ability to influence where necessary. These are all key leadership skills CIOs need to bring to the boardroom, he adds. 

“There has to be an ability to function beyond the calling card,” says Quinlan, who currently serves on the boards of ServiceNow, JLL, Bookings Holdings, UBS Americas, and a few private-equity portfolio companies. “The CFO in the boardroom needs to be able to function beyond finance. The CIO in the boardroom needs to function beyond technology.” 

Sigal Zarmi, a former CIO of Morgan Stanley, PwC, and GE Capital, brings other intangibles to her boards beyond IT leadership skills.  

“One of the things is the scale of what I ran,” she says. “I worked for large companies, and I’ve seen a lot. The global experience is another one. Today, you have geopolitical pressure, policy changes, and a lot of other challenges companies need to grapple with.”

Those attributes, along with her strategic, transformational, and cyber expertise have helped her join the boards of ADT, GoDaddy and Global Atlantic. 

Those are some examples of the spikes Hopkins stresses. But CIOs aspiring to board seats have even more work to do. 

Knowledge is power

In recent years, technology-related topics have risen on the agendas of corporate boards, so it’s no surprise that more IT leaders are joining their ranks. 

Take EY’s Americas Board Priorities 2025 report. Board directors responding to the survey noted they needed to spend more time on cybersecurity and innovation. They also said they needed more insight in emerging technology. Sounds like a job for IT leaders, right? Absolutely. In fact, 40% of those same board directors said their management teams had the right skills and resources to address those key topics. 

Herein lies another conundrum for CIOs seeking spots on boards. Many see those findings and think they can help with that. But the context is more important. 

“In your operational role as a CIO, you’re very much involved in the details, solving problems every day,” Zarmi says. “On the board, you don’t solve the problems. You help, coach, mentor, ask questions, make suggestions, and impart wisdom, but you’re not responsible for execution.” 

That’s another change IT leaders need to make to position themselves for board seats. Luckily, there are tools that can help them make the leap. Quinlan, for example, got a certification from the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), which offers a variety of resources for aspiring board members. And he took it a few steps further by attaining a financial certification. Sure, he’d been involved in P&L management, but the certification helped him understand finance at the board’s altitude. 

He also added a cybersecurity certification even though he runs multi-hundred-million-dollar cyber programs. “Right, but I haven’t run it at the board, and I wanted to do that,” he says.

From an even wider perspective, Shurts explains what helps so many IT leaders achieve their career pinnacle. “If you can provide the story of why boards need a tech expert, that’ll open some eyes,” he says. “But you also have to show them you can be involved in discussions about capital structure, M&A, talent development, and so on. That’s what will make you more attractive.”