How do senior women find Non Executive Directorship roles?

Recently Moira was asked to join a round table discussion organised by WACL (Women in Advertising and Communications London) ( see www.wacl.com), to share her experience on obtaining Non Executive Directorship roles and what it felt like to be in those roles. Also on the speaker panel were Liz Nelson OBE, Ray Fox MD of Ned Exchange and Helen Alexandra (then CEO of The Economist).

There was a lively discussion that ranged over many issues, not least how you get a Non Exec role when often the first criteria for any candidate is to have such a role already, and on how to build your networks and contacts since so many of these opportunities are still initiated by who you know rather than what. It is clear however that more and more senior women are seeing the Non Executive role as a way of being able to contribute at the highest level in an organisation and still maintain their balanced life outside of it.