Without taking a view either way on any individual Board member there is a lot to be said for an active Board with commercial acumen whose contribution rises over and above straight governance and box checking. Being an executive can be a surprisingly lonely job when you are making all the commercial calls without anyone to bounce ideas off of you, test you, and share the emotional burden in decision making. It is frustrating and value destructive for an EMT to show up to a board meeting with meaningful pivots in strategy (w/ all the attendant risk) or sudden change in market/business dynamics and all the Board wants to do is talk about ESG, audit & risk, listing requirements etc.
Good executives in my experience wouldn't bat an eye at fortnightly or even weekly engagements with the Chair or other board members so long as it was focused on 'the right stuff.' Providing mgmt teams with the confidence to make the right long term commercial calls and holding that strategic focus despite day to day gyrations is invaluable and (in my view) value accretive over the long term. Having a more active board means things get socialised and stress tested earlier and allows for more productive Board meetings.
So I was hearted to hear of the Board's engagement at the ASM. While I intended to vote no to the board fee proposal (something more in line with the CAGR in CPI from the date of the last raise in director fees was more my wish) I made a rookie mistake in thinking I could vote online and instead it was just a youtube livestream. Oh well & I've moved on (business performance certainly helped).