Podcast #95 | Karen Francis: "An Effective Lead Director Needs to Have Excellent EQ (Emotional Quotient)."

In episode #95 of the Boardroom Governance Podcast,, Evan Epstein talks with Karen C. Francis, a Silicon Valley-based corporate director with deep domain knowledge in the automotive, tech and advertising sectors.

Karen currently serves as corporate director of Polestar and Chairs the boards of both Vontier and CelLink Corporation. She is deeply engaged in the mobility and transportation technology ecosystem as an independent director for a number of private-equity and venture-capital funded companies in Silicon Valley.

In this podcast, Karen talks about her career including her board journey in public, private, advisory, non-profit, and international company boards. Evan and Karen address trends from the automotive industry, SPACs, the role of Chair and Lead Independent Directors (and whether the Chair and CEO roles should be separate), and the positive and negative connotations of ESG.

They also discuss:

👉 Distinctions between VC and PE backed company boards.
👉 Board evaluations.
👉 The impact of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse.
👉 Karen’s winery Limerick Lane Cellars (Healdsburg, CA)

You can listen to the episode directly in the Boardroom Governance Podcast website (where you can find all the show notes), or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts such as in: Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon or Stitcher.

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Pacifica Global was founded in San Francisco to serve as a leading corporate governance advisory firm. The mission of Pacifica Global is to help founders, executives, directors and investors solve some of their most complex corporate governance conflicts and challenges.