Directors to watch 2009: as one of the accomplished members of our class of 2009 states, 'building a strong base of corporate go

WITH A NOD TO a once-popular song, what a difference a year makes. When it comes to emerging female and minority directors reaching the boardrooms of North American publicly traded companies, 2009 already has seen some milestones, and there's no turning back.

For the team at DIRECTORS & BOARDS, a recent indicator of a shifting paradigm was reflected in our first quarter 2009 Directors Roster. The number of new women directors tracked from January through March was 38 of 101 board seats filled, or 38% of the total number named to boards. This was up from 23% in the fourth quarter of 2008. For all of 2008, women made up 25% of board appointments, according to DIRECTORS & BOARDS research.

Meanwhile, significant strides in board-level appointments of minority and female candidates continued apace on other fronts. Boardroom Bound (www.boardroombound.biz), an organization dedicated to filling the pipeline of qualified and savvy board-level candidates, has seen support for its mission grow year over year. The organization actively participates with DIRECTORS & BOARDS to nominate rising directors for our annual recognition. Indeed, most of the leaders highlighted below are strong advocates for Boardroom Bound and they have shared their expertise as seminar speakers in the Boardology Institute.

Also notable, the quarterly Directors Roster is sponsored by Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., a leader in executive and director recruiting. Heidrick & Struggles earlier this year announced increased financial support and a global partnership with Women Corporate Directors (www.womencorporatedirectors.com) to accelerate the development of "the next generation of board leadership," in the words of Heidrick & Struggles Chief Executive Officer Kevin Kelly.

This goal is worthy of sharing, and Directors & Boards is proud to partner with Boardroom Bound, Crowe Horwath, Heidrick & Struggles, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, and other organizations to advance that next generation of board leadership upon which the future of business will rely.

Evelyn Dilsaver

Board member, HighMark Capital, Aeropostale, Tamalpais Bank

EVELYN DILSAVER is a recognized leader in building highly motivated teams in both the public and nonprofit sector. As president and CEO of Charles Schwab Investment Management, she was responsible for all facets of the business, from portfolio management to product development, sales, operations, and technology, growing the assets from $137 billion to over $200 billion in four short years while generating $1 billion in revenue. Simultaneously, she was chair of the board for Women's Initiative, a nonprofit organization that helps lower-income women become economically independent by providing a one-stop organization for training, microfinancing, and savings to help them start their own businesses. She took this organization through a founder transition, restructuring the board and its finances after the dot-com bust, to a healthy and growing organization serving over 3,000 women annually.

Recognized in the community for her leadership, Dilsaver received the 2003 Filipinas Magazine Corporate Award, the San Francisco Business Times "100 Most Influential Woman" award for the last five years, the California Women's Leadership Alliance Award 2006, Legal Momentum's Women of Achievement Award 2007, and California State University East Bay Alumnae of the Year 2008.

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Dilsaver is on the board Aeropostale, a specialty teen retailer, Tamalpais Bank, a community bank, and HighMark Funds, serving on the audit and nominating and governance committees. She is also on the board of three nonprofits; Women's Initiative, the Commonwealth Club, and is chair of the board of regents for Bishop O'Dowd High School. As a friend of Boardroom Bound, she has championed the cause of bringing diversity into the boardroom.

The Role of the Board Member: "Board members play important roles and many have come under heightened scrutiny and shareholder activism in light of the big business failures of the past year. Valued board members take their role seriously and are the source of independent thought through insightful questions that are enterprise-wide and sometimes tactical, coaching and mentoring the CEO and, most importantly, staying calm in periods of crisis. Great board members know how to solicit differing points of view and help others come to a solution that is good for the company and the shareholders. The blend of deep industry knowledge and broad operating experiences among the directors helps a company survive in these tumultuous times."

Gisselle Acevedo

President and Chief Executive Officer, Para Los Ninos

AS PRESIDENT AND CEO of Para Los Ninos, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit agency that provides child care, schooling and other services to at-risk children and their families, Gisselle Acevedo, M.A., J.D., has overall responsibility for 450 professional and support staff and an annual operating budget in 2009 in excess of $24 million. She provides leadership for the daily activities of the organization, including operations, human resources management, marketing, financial management, program development, capital and acquisition development, and strategic direction.

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Before joining Para Los Ninos as president and CEO in June 2006, Acevedo served as president and general manager of the Los Angeles edition of Hoy, the Spanish language newspaper owned by Tribune Co. She was responsible for the overall operations of sales, advertising, production, and editorial of the daily newspaper. Prior to that position, she served as vice president of public affairs at the Los Angeles Times and president of the Los Angeles Times Foundation, where she directed the Times's public affairs activities.

A community leader of distinction, Acevedo sits on several boards, including the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Women's Leadership Board, Farmers Insurance Co., Health Net, and First Federal Bank of California. She served as an appointee for President Bill Clinton's Commission on Mental Retardation as well as an emeritus regent at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. She is also a member of Boardroom Bound.

Acevedo is a Northwestern University McCormick Fellow, and has been honored by such organizations as the Hispanic Public Relations Society, the Los Angeles County Commission on Women and the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO),the Loyola Law School Board of Governors Award, and many others.

Diversity Yields Critical Knowledge: "To greatly oversimplify, I'd say that the value of boardroom diversity boils down to two key things: consumer purchasing power and community. A company's board should directly reflect its shareholders, and while diverse populations are growing at an incredible rate, the purchasing power of these groups is growing even faster. Board members who understand these populations bring critical knowledge of consumer attitudes and behaviors, which translates to better, sharper, corporate strategy. Community is the lens through which I view the decisions I make as a board member, because the children in my community today are the shareholders of tomorrow."

Heidi L. Steiger

Advisory Director, Berkshire Capital Securities

HEIDI L. STEIGER is advisory director to Berkshire Capital Securities, a 25-year old strategic advisory firm to the financial services industry. Steiger also has her own consultancy, Topridge Associates, which advises multifamily offices and institutions in the areas of asset management, investment platforms, philanthropy, and family governance worldwide.

Previously she was president of Lowenhaupt Global Advisors, a 100-year-old multifamily office based in St. Louis, and was also interim president of Worth magazine. She also served as executive vice president of Neuberger Berman, where she spent 18 years and headed the private client business and was on the firm's executive management committee.

Steiger currently sits on the boards of Aviva USA, Eaton Vance mutual funds, CIFG, and Nuclear Electric Insurance Ltd. She is also on the boards of several not-for-profit organizations: the Christopher Reeve Foundation, the Whitney Museum Chairman's Council, the acquisitions committee of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Metropolitan Museum's visiting committee in the department of photographs. She is an avid supporter of Boardroom Bound.

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She authored the book, Wealthy & Wise: Secrets About Money, which was voted by Barron's as one of the top business books in 2002. She holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Boston College.

Risk Management Should Be High on the Agenda: "Risk management to my mind should always be one of the top three concerns for board directors, but as recently as last fall still ranked fourth or fifth in many surveys. While we concede the 'black swan' events of last fall, I still see instances where management may not be thinking of all the scenarios that could contribute to further risk exposure in their firms. For example, political mood swings oftentimes may not be translated into quantifiable stress-testing results. Also, since models by their nature must simplify certain assumptions, it may be those very assumptions that are the most flawed. And even in our successes there are sometimes unintended consequences. For board directors, thoughtful discussion of these unintended consequences can help management better bullet-proof budgeted results."

Cheryl L. Shavers

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Global Smarts Inc.

A SILICON VALLEY SUCCESS STORY, Cheryl Shavers, a 25-year veteran of the high-tech industry with such Fortune 500 companies as Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola, was the first female African American Undersecretary of Commerce for Technology of the United States government. She was the highest-ranking technologist in the Clinton administration and is one of the most influential women in the world of technology today.

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