The Board Directory is a private, global curated member database of board members and senior leaders worldwide. It is used by leading board headhunting and private equity firms to identify and connect with top board and executive talent.
The Directory’s members currently represent boards from 33% of the FTSE 100 and close to 50% of the FTSE 250.
Headhunters searching the Directory gain access to state-of-the-art candidate profiles. These include CVs, AI-generated bios, videos self-recorded on the candidate’s profile to showcase style, direct comments from the candidate on capacity and interest, and automatically updated listed board roles and financial information.
The platform enables searches by professional, committee and index experience; self-selected diversity attributes; PLC Remco experience; sector; qualification; languages; interest (eg football); role interest (eg, NFP); current and previous global residence; and CV keyword.
Candidate profiles display automated UK PLC board metrics, including FTSE 350 ranking, current and previous market capitalisation and change in market cap over tenure, offering a snapshot view of candidates’ seniority and track record.
The Board Directory is designed to enable discoverability of less obvious but high-calibre candidates, such as those based abroad, ExCo-1 leaders, recently retired CEOs and outgoing Big 4 audit partners.
Each search partner’s activity within The Board Directory is completely private. Search projects and saved candidates are visible only to the individual searcher; they are not shared or visible to colleagues, other search partners, users, or partner firms.
The system allows headhunters to manage their searches and candidate interactions securely within their own private environment.
The platform does not share or expose any project names, search parameters, or candidate lists to external parties. Project names are encrypted so that even Directory administrators are unable to read them.
No data is shared with third parties regarding the specifics of any search, user activity, or candidate engagement. The Directory exists solely to surface candidates for placement.
Gold membership users are informed when they are viewed by a search firm but are never informed of the identity of any individual headhunter. No information is provided about the underlying search.
Classic (standard) membership users do not have access to this information. They are only shown how many search partners have viewed their profile within a given timeframe.
Logins may only be used by the named user. Access is restricted to board practice headhunters only to protect member experience and retention.
The Directory is open to board members and leaders of the largest companies globally (above £300m of revenue or market capitalisation, down to ExCo-2 level in large-cap organisations), and to partners of major professional services firms worldwide.
It is also open to board members and leaders of major government, arts, military, and not-for-profit organisations. Members must be serving or recently retired if without a portfolio.
Search partners are highly curated and represent leading global search and private equity firms. Where a partnership exists, access is free.
Members receive free access if they sit on a FTSE 350 board. Other eligible members pay an annual subscription: £295 per annum for Classic membership and £495 per annum for Gold membership.