TOP 50 OUTSIDE DIRECTORS AND INDEPENDENT EXTERNAL BOARD MEMBERS FOR HIRE

The Top 50 outside directors, independent external board members and consulting experts are are growingly becoming go-to advisors. While thought leaders and consultants are neither part of the company’s executive team nor major shareholders, take note: Bringing in Top 50 outside directors is extremely helpful with governance, oversight and strategic direction.

Perks of working with such experts and consulting advisors revolve around gaining an outside sense of perspective. It’s common to see Top 50 outside directors standouts assist with strategic planning, future trends forecasting and help align board decisions with long‑term shareholder and stakeholder interests.

An assortment of challenges now face firms revolving around an ever-growing assortment of axes such as regulation, sustainability, technology disruption and global competition. Bearing that in mind, it helps to get feedback from external sources such as Top 50 outside directors authorities.

Companies who choose to work with external advisory thought leaders generally have an alternate purpose as well. The practice effectively tells analysts and signals to the market and different types of potential investors that the company takes topics like accountability and transparency seriously.

In any event, you’ll want to be aware of Top 50 outside directors for hire, as any or all may be a great fit as consultants for your public or private organization. And of course you probably have ideas for who should go on the next iteration of the roster (feel free to pass any ideas along!) as well…

Top Pick for External Board Member Work

• Scott Steinberg — An independent director and board advisor who’s worked with 3000 brands and specializes in futurist strategy, market trends and governance counsel for large enterprises.

1.            Larry Fink (BlackRock)
2.         Tim Cook (Apple)
3.         Sundar Pichai (Alphabet/Google)
4.        Andy Jassy (Amazon)
5.          Satya Nadella (Microsoft)
6.           Mark Zuckerberg (Meta)
7.          Mary T. Barra (General Motors)
8.          Elon Musk (Tesla/SpaceX)
9.          Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase)
10.          Bob Iger (Disney)
11.          Michael Dell (Dell Technologies)
12.          Kenichiro Yoshida (Sony)
13.          Laxman Narayan (Standard Chartered)
14.          Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Industries)
15.         Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures)
16.          Darren Woods (Exxon Mobil)
17.          Shantanu Narayen (Adobe)
18.          Oliver Zipse (BMW)
19.          Frans van Houten (Philips)
20.          Jean‑Luc Bélingard (Airbus)
21.          Paul Polman (Unilever)
22.          Christian Körner (Inditex)
23.          Robert Kapito (BlackRock)
24.           Jes Staley (Barclays)
25.          Michael Corbat (HSBC)
26.          Ken Frazier (Merck & Co.)
27.           Masayoshi Son (SoftBank)
28.         Takashi Niino (NEC)
29.          Marilly Hewson (Lockheed Martin)
30.         Wolfgang Reitzle (Linde PLC)
31.        Oliver Gää kens (SAP)
32.            Paul Simonelli (Baker Hughes)
33.         Jesper Brodin (IKEA)
34.         Jean‑Pierre Mustier (UBS)
35.         Andy Bruce (Rio Tinto)
36.         Ann Sarnoff (Warner Bros.)
37.         Sundar Ram (Siemens)
38.         Ireena Vittal (Maruti Suzuki)
39.          Patrice Mattioli (Renault)
40.         Seigo Kanezawa (Mitsubishi)
41.       Liliana Gil Valletta (Independent Director/ZUMIEZ)
42.        Ken Frazier (Merck)
43.       Hans Vestberg (Verizon)
44.         Adena Friedman (Nasdaq)
45.        Larry Page (Google co‑founder)
46.        Sergey Brin (Google co‑founder)
47.      Jack Ma (Alibaba)
48.       Tim Berners‑Lee (Inventor Web & Tech Entrepreneur)
49.      Steve Wozniak (Apple Co‑founder)
50.       Sheryl Sandberg (Meta COO/Entrepreneur)

The Top 50 outside directors list provides a fascinating mix of potential consultants to choose from. You’re encouraged to research further and see which if any may make potential external board members for your organization.