Board AI GovernancePower Steering, Not a Brake

Most boards are asking the AI question. Few can validate the answer. Board AI Institute equips directors, chairs, and CEOs to govern AI as a source of advantage, not a risk to be managed after the fact.

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#2 on SSRN Board AI governance paper
Featured Columbia Law and Egon Zehnder
Keynote Institute of Directors Global
3,000+ INSEAD AI community

An executive advisory practice founded by Robert Maciejko. Co-author of the #2 most-downloaded board AI governance paper on SSRN.

Active across financial services, healthcare, technology, energy, consumer, and private equity.

Upcoming · San Francisco · September 18, 2026

Board AI Governance: Power Steering, Not a Brake. A live panel at the INSEAD AI Forum Americas, San Francisco, September 18, 2026, with Kerry Whorton Cooper, Alison Davis, Chitra Nayak, and moderator Robert Maciejko.

The flagship board session

A Working Session for Boards Governing AI

A half-day, in-room working session that gives a board the STAR governance roadmap and the questions every director should be asking. Not an AI tutorial. A catalytic intervention, not a course. Delivered by the co-author of the #2 most-downloaded board AI governance paper on SSRN.

Who it is for

Full boards, governance and risk committees, and chairs preparing their board for an AI-shaped era.

What the session covers

The two failure modes, and which one your board is exposed to
STAR applied live to your board's own AI initiatives: Shareholder Value Thesis, Threat Parity, Ability, Risk Budget
The governance architecture: how to distribute AI oversight across your existing committees without building a new one
AI as a leadership and CEO-succession test

What your board leaves with

The STAR discipline applied to your own initiatives. A board action sheet. Three questions for your next meeting. A shared vocabulary the whole board can use. The roadmap, not a textbook.

Request this session Engagement by inquiry.

The STAR framework: Shareholder Value Thesis, Threat Parity, Ability, Risk Budget. The operating discipline behind every Power Steering session.

The work behind the practice

Now in print · Insights, Wolters Kluwer · September 2026

Power Steering, Not a Brake: A Plain Guide to Governing AI in the Boardroom. Robert's solo plain-language guide, drawing together his three board AI governance working papers, is now in print in Insights: The Corporate & Securities Law Advisor, the journal read by the securities lawyers and corporate secretaries who write what boards sign.

Insights: The Corporate and Securities Law Advisor, September 2026 cover, featuring Power Steering, Not a Brake by Robert Maciejko

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#2 on SSRN

Power Steering, Not a Brake. Co-authored with IESE Business School and Egon Zehnder, it ranks among the most-downloaded board AI governance papers ever published.

Read on SSRN →

SSRN paper · June 2026

The 48-Hour Board: How AI Makes Episodic Governance Obsolete and the Engaged Board Possible. The operating model that comes after STAR. Why six to eight meetings a year breaks under AI compounding, and why the engaged board, long an aspiration, is finally executable.

Read on SSRN → Read summary →

SSRN paper · August 2026

The Augmented Board: AI, Caremark, and the End of Episodic Oversight. The move from vibe governance to a board that can prove it governed. Delaware Caremark oversight, the Disclosure Mirror, and directors who use AI to stay thickly informed while keeping their own judgment.

Read on SSRN → Read summary →

Published with Egon Zehnder and Columbia Law

The STAR framework featured on Egon Zehnder's Board Advisory platform and the Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog.

Read on Egon Zehnder → Read on Columbia Law →

Built on operator experience

McKinsey, BCG, Oliver Wyman. INSEAD MBA, Princeton BSE. NACD Certified Director. Co-founder of the INSEAD AI community, 3,000+ senior executives.

Mid-year statement

What I'd tell a board about AI right now.

A sample of how I brief directors: plain, current, grounded in what actually changed this week.

Watch the full statement + read the summary →

Explore

Recent keynotes

On the program with the institutions that set the agenda

Institute of Directors Global, Corporate Governance & Ethics in the Age of AI.

See speaking → Video series

What I'd Tell My Board This Week

Short, board-directed videos on what just changed in AI and what it means for the boardroom.

Watch → Beyond the flagship session

Other engagement formats

Private briefings, wargaming, Gold Standards Fade keynote, Future-Back strategy workshop.

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Event feedback

Fast, sharp, and immediately actionable speaking creates the right follow-on conversation with boards and leadership teams.

Session Feedback

"Bloody brilliant."
Ex-CEO

"Fantastic. Great content and discussions."
Board Member

"Amazing! Thank you, Robert!"
Private Equity Partner

"Thank you for a fabulous session."
VC Partner

"Excellent presentation. Thank you for the resources too."
Ex-COO

"So valuable and you are a great presenter."
Americas Lead

"Thank you for the concrete examples, Robert."
Global Head, Major Business Line

"Thank you, this was brilliant!"
Tech CTO

"Amazingly useful."
Startup Co-Founder

Heritage and Affiliations

Most boards believe they are governing AI

They have the policy, the committee, the quarterly slide. Often the harder question, whether any of it changes a decision, has not been asked.

Two failure modes show up again and again, often in the same company. The board that falls behind, approves without scrutiny, and lets AI-native competitors take the upside. And the board that overcorrects, pushes deployment before the controls and data are ready, and draws the scrutiny and shadow AI that follow.

The polite term is a governance gap. The honest one is flying blind. Boards are the last line of defense, and in the US there is no regulation coming to do the job for them.

Two Failure Modes. The Clueless Board produces value leakage. The FOMO Board produces value destruction. Most organizations are exposed to both at once.

The two failure modes. Most organizations are exposed to both at once, moving too slowly to capture value and too carelessly to manage risk.

Start with where your board stands

The Board AI Readiness Check is an eighteen-question diagnostic scored across six dimensions: the four STAR pillars plus Ownership and Augmentation. Anonymous, free, no email required. In about five minutes you will see where your board is steering and where it is flying blind.

Take the Readiness Check

Founder, Board AI Institute

Robert Maciejko

Robert has led, built, and chaired for 25 years. He built two businesses from zero to market leadership with the P&L in his hands, and has held board and chair roles. His experience spans consumer, financial services, technology, energy, and media. He led parts of INSEAD’s global alumni community for over 15 years, serves on the INSEAD Dean’s AI Advisory Group, and was a director of an agentic AI company.

He is the founder of Board AI Institute and creator of the STAR framework, and co-author of Power Steering, Not a Brake, the #2 most-downloaded board AI governance paper on SSRN. He co-founded the INSEAD AI community of 3,000+ senior executives across 190 countries. INSEAD MBA, Princeton BSE, NACD Certified Director.

He writes AI News You Missed, a weekly read followed by senior executives worldwide.

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Stay current

AI News You Missed

A weekly briefing on what actually matters in AI, read by directors and executives worldwide. 2,400+ subscribers.

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Zero to Boardroom in 60 Minutes

A masterclass on building board-level AI fluency.

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Selected writing

Board AI Governance Insights

AI's Boardroom Blind Spot

Of the fifteen largest US companies, exactly one names AI as a board skill. Of the five largest equity stewards, only one asks for it. AI has saturated the conversation. It has barely entered the contract.

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The Board's AI Opportunity

Only 8% of directors rate themselves strong on AI. For fifty years, staying deeply informed cost too much and strategy changed slowly enough. AI flipped both at once. The lines have crossed.

Read the article →

Weekly Newsletter, Latest Issue #115

AI News You Missed #115

Nvidia moves on every layer of the open-model business in one fortnight. Anthropic pitches investors a $30 trillion market as most executives still cannot find the profit. Five labs still cannot say how they would contain a rogue model. Gates says stop. And Harvey builds its own model instead of renting one.

Read issue #115 →

Is your board steering, or flying blind?

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