Hello VAB members,
It’s a pleasure to pass on to you the July issue of our VAB News newsletter.
We would like to encourage you to use the next 60 days to explore our member learning resources in the VAB Community platform. Plus, you can take inspiration from one of our recent Prompt of the Week posts and use this mid-year period to think more strategically about where your professional journey and your portfolio career are headed and how they will lead you to greater structural independence.
On top of that, we have some great articles in this month’s newsletter with a contribution from our member Hadi El-Assaad on the role of board risk committees and a short summary of our anniversary discussion sessions.
Happy reading! And we look forward to seeing you soon at one of our events!
The VAB Team
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Upcoming VAB Virtual Events
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Remember to check out our Events Calendar in the VAB Community Platform page and app. We have an On-Stage session coming up on 14 July along with Needs & Leads sessions (morning, afternoon) on 15 July.
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Host a VAB Peer Engagement Session (Speed Connect! / Needs & Leads)
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This is a great opportunity to facilitate meaningful conversations, create valuable connections, and help strengthen the VAB community. If you’d like to be considered for a moderator role, please complete the short form here. You can also find the form anytime under the Visibility tab or in the Events section of the platform.
And don’t forget that you can also take advantage of our Needs & Leads Forum on the VAB Platform/App — a space designed to help members support one another through shared opportunities, needs, leads and crowd(peer)-sourced answers to timely questions.
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VAB4VAB Member Referral Programme
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If you know someone who would be a good fit for VAB, contact our global membership director Callum to find out how you can extend your annual membership*, for each referred member who decides to join VAB. Those newly-joining referred members also get a one-month extension on their membership as a welcome gift.
For full details on the updated programme, click here.
*Each member can earn up to 12 months of complimentary membership extensions through successful referrals.
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We are delighted to announce that our member Eduardo R. Pagani has authored a new book. His new publication Manufacturing Simplicity focuses on how to tackle critical moments in organisational growth when businesses are faced with limited resources. In moments where underperformance is an issue, leaders do not have the luxury of vague ideas or slow improvement. They need a clear way to regain control, improve performance and build an organisation capable of sustaining results. In this context, Eduardo’s book offers a methodical, practical guide for simplifying operations, strengthening accountability and fostering an engaging culture of continuous improvement. The book draws on Eduardo’s decades of experience leading turnarounds, scaling operations, and transforming organisations, showing how Lean can become far more than a toolbox. It can become the management system that drives daily execution.
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Exploring Founding Courage and Portfolio Career Journeys
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On 24 June, we invited two special guests to help us mark six years of the global VAB community. Our speakers Vijay Solanki and Andreia Fernandes led two separate discussions attended by over 125+ VAB members and guests.
Vijay's morning presentation challenged participants to look beyond the practical mechanics of building a portfolio career and instead focus on the deeper psychological transition from corporate executive to independent leader. He argued that the greatest challenge is redefining personal identity once institutional authority, titles and organisational structures no longer provide validation. Through interactive exercises, he encouraged attendees to become comfortable with uncertainty, clarify the unique value they bring to the market and take one concrete action within the next 30 days towards their next chapter. His core message pointed out that career transition is an identity shift rather than simply a career move. Instead of asking, What role should I take next?, leaders should ask, Who am I becoming? and How will the market understand the value I create?
During her afternoon presentation, Andreia challenged attendees to see a portfolio career not simply as holding multiple roles, but as intentionally designing a career around purpose, strengths and the value they want to create. Drawing on her own journey, she showed that portfolio careers can combine employment, entrepreneurship, teaching, advisory work and personal priorities in ways that increase both resilience and fulfilment. She encouraged leaders in attendance to invest in their personal brand, communicate their evolving value proposition and embrace the inner work required to move beyond traditional career paths. Her key message was that portfolio careers are highly individual: success comes from continuously nurturing and managing your portfolio around what energises you, while remaining visible, adaptable and open to new opportunities.
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Join the STS Capital Partners global network of Advisors
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VAB members have access to exciting opportunities with our partner STS Capital. If you would like to know more, the next step in the process is to click here to register for an upcoming onboarding session for VAB members. This allows you to meet the STS team, learn more about the organisation and the M&A resources you will have access to, as well as the referral process available through the Advisor Network. There will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have.
As a reminder, since STS is a VAB partner, if you refer to their team a privately-owned business with annual revenues of USD 50M-USD 2B looking to make an Extraordinary Exit, you could earn 7% of the net success fees if your referral is successful.
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VAB to host members at Volcano Summit again this year!
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Latin America’s top start-up and innovation-focused gathering Volcano Summit is coming soon. From 5-7 September the event will once again take place in La Antigua, Guatemala, offering a great occasion for our regional VAB members to gather in-person and benefit from the event programme. Keep an eye out for news about our traditional VAB gathering at this event.
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iDirectores 4th Board Member Roundtable to take place in Oct.
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VAB partner iDirectores will host its annual Board Member Roundtable event in Panamá City, Panamá from 14-16 October. This event traditionally attended by members of our local VAB chapter as well as our members from across Latin America offers a special opportunity to catch up on how the board ecosystem is developing in the region and what skill sets board chairs are looking for as they fill independent director seats. Stay tuned for more information on VAB’s presence at this important regional meeting.
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Join VAB leadership at this year's World Business Forum Milano event happening in Q4 of this year. From 21-26 November community representatives will have the chance to meet up at this event led by our VAB partner, WOBI, and to engage with top business leaders from around the globe. This year’s sessions will focus on resilience and how to transcend beyond traditional strategy approaches. Reach out to our member experience team to learn more about special terms for VAB members.
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Governance Leadership in Times of Disruption: The Evolving Role of the Board Risk Committee Disruption rarely arrives in neat categories. Cyber threats, AI, geopolitics and regulatory change increasingly collide to create new governance challenges. In this article, our VAB member Hadi El-Assaad explores how board risk committees must evolve from delivering compliance-focused oversight to providing strategic leadership centred on resilience, anticipation and adaptability. Read the full article and give some thought to what today's boards should monitor most closely in an age of constant disruption.
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The board’s role in managing emerging AI risks - this article, from McKinsey & Company, summarises information security issues arising from broader implementation of AI-driven processes across businesses and global organisations. The article includes insights from a number of highly-respected CISOs.
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What CISOs need to land a board role - this text from the CSO News server offers tips on how Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) from various organisations have built paths to future board assignments: either as directors or advisors. It highlights the key skills that make CISOs valuable to boardroom discussions.
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