7. How does a COO work effectively with the board?

In this episode we discuss the topic of: How does a COO work effectively with the board? Our special guest is Keith Wallington, the former COO of Mimecast and currently Chairperson working across five B2B SaaS organisations. Keith lays out “what good looks like” in board stewardship for growth stage businesses. He also lifts the hood on expectations for the COO.

• What do you know now that you wish you had known as a COO?
• What do you want from a COO in board meetings
• How much do you tow the line if you are disagreeing with your CEO when in front of the board?
• If you see a CEO and COO always agreeing in board meetings is that a red flag or do you assume they are simply well aligned.
• What's the role of the board in the hiring process for a COO?
• Should the entire exec team be a part of the board and what role should the COO play?
• How should the COO prepare for a board meeting, without killing themselves in the process?
• Do you feel like COOs should have a close relationship with the chairperson?
• What's your advice to the COO’s dealing with an old skool board?
• To minimise board reporting effort can you simply re-purpose reporting you already do with the exec team and wider company? 
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References: 

10 tips for running board meetings as efficiently as Hanno Renner, CEO of Personio

Biography: 

Keith has led strategy and execution in technology businesses since the 1990’s, driving growth in Europe, the USA and Africa: His experience in driving online business models spans Retail Banking, Telecommunications, Online Live Broadcasting, Software and Software as a Service (SaaS): he has led online initiatives at businesses including Microsoft, Standard Bank, Omnicom/TBWA, MTN Group, Truphone and Mimecast.

From 2008 – 2014 Keith spent 6 years driving growth at Mimecast, best in class and global leader in SaaS based email security, archiving and continuity: Here he assumed a number of C Level roles, including COO, spanning most of the business from Marketing to Customer Experience to Technical Operations as he championed scalable, efficient growth during this phase of hyper growth (from $6m to over $110m Annual Recurring Revenue) and global expansion from the UK base. 

After preparing Mimecast for IPO Keith refocused his attention to support businesses on their growth journey. Keith invests in and assumes board roles with Series A to Growth stage companies. He engages directly and also collaborates with Venture Capital and Private Equity teams to co-invest and add depth to portfolio company boards.