The results are in for this year’s industry-leading report for Chairs and NEDs: Life in the Boardroom

For its 2025/26 edition of Life in the Boardroom, MM&K collected responses from Chairs and NEDs who hold a total of 435 board appointments, surveying them on their fees, their use of time, and their opinions and experiences on topics such as board governance, board effectiveness, and more.

Life in the Boardroom collects responses directly from NEDs, not from published reports. This includes the ‘director views’ section, which gives readers a unique insight into the experiences and thoughts of fellow board members. Here are some of our findings:

• In 2021/22, the vast majority of meetings were held online. This declined to 51% in 2023/24, and further to 37% in 2025/26.
• 78% say their firm is at least exploring AI for core business processes. The remaining 22% are not considering AI currently.
• 83% of respondents stated their companies conduct a formal interview process prior to appointing NEDs/Chair.
• 14% of responses say that their board lacks the diversity of skills, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to probe management’s strategic assumptions and help the company navigate an increasingly volatile and fast paced global environment.

The 2025/26 Life in the Boardroom Report will go into further depth on these results and much more.

It is free to all participants. If you would like to participate in the next survey, purchase the 2023 report, or pre-order the upcoming 2025 report, click here or contact Margarita Skripina.

We thank Board Excellence, Women on Boards, NEDs in FS and Nurole for their support with the survey.

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