Governance Consulting for Effective Leadership
For time out of mind, auspicious journeys have begun on the ebb tide.
Services
Each engagement is tailored to the needs of the client, guided by a philosophy that board performance sets the stage for institutional progress.
Transition Planning and Assistance
Assessment, and Systems-Building
Committee Leadership Coaching
Custom Onboarding and Education
Topical Presentation and Facilitation
A change in leadership—of either the institution or the board—is important to get right. Develop a plan to start a new board leader-chief executive partnership well, or to begin leading from either position in relation to the board itself. Benefit from structured check-ins and implementation guidance along the way.
Assess the board, its committees, its meetings, its members, or its chair, with each report of results created to function as a high-value instrument of leadership. Demonstrate seriousness about performance assessment—both within and beyond the board room—by adopting a rigorous and systematic approach.
Committee leadership comes from both committee chairs and staff liaisons. Few individuals come to these roles with extensive experience, and yet board effectiveness can, should, and often does rely on committee effectiveness. Ensure strong coaching, either at the group or individual level, so as not to leave results to chance.
Board and board member readiness is non-negotiable, and it cannot wait. Ensure your board has a second-to-none orientation, mentorship, and ongoing learning model that positions the board to add real value.
Not every topic, and not every discussion, can be addressed well by internal leaders. Reduce cultural disconnects between your board and your faculty; ensure effective table-setting for strategy development; or step back with your board and contextualize institutional purpose and environment to inspirational effect. Each engagement is created to meet your needs in this moment.
About
Andrew Lounder, PhD has been working with higher education boards, board leaders, chief executives, and staff for over a decade. Earlier in his career he held a variety of roles at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), from staffing the National Commission on College and University Board Governance and directing special projects and strategic initiatives (e.g., shared governance, board culture, multi-campus system governance, accreditation, the AGB Guardians Initiative) to staffing AGB’s renowned institutes for board chairs and chief executives, as well as its annual conferences and overseeing all event-based member learning.
Andy’s academic training is as an organizational behaviorist of colleges and universities, and he has on many occasions taught an original course on governance as a Special Faculty Member in the Graduate School at his doctoral alma mater, the University of Maryland College Park. He holds a master’s degree in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania, and he is a long-serving member of the board of trustees for his undergraduate alma mater, Wheaton College in Massachusetts.
He has years of on-campus experience in student affairs and academic research roles, and he has a deep and studied passion for higher education as a vehicle for changing lives and lifting communities.
Born and raised in Bath, Maine, he resides in Washington, DC with his spouse and two children.