Sanford Rich, Board Director, Unusual Machines (NYSE: UMAC)
Your Board Lens: What perspective do you bring to the boardroom that most shapes how you approach oversight?
My early career experience as an analyst, investor and trader of distressed/defaulted securities gave me a focus on understanding financial disclosures, alternative sources of information, and the need for action in the face of challenges. This experience has supported my continued education in the management of audit committees of public and private corporations and a tendency to act immediately in the face of problems. There are always problems to address.
A Defining Board Moment: What has been one of your most meaningful—or instructive—board experiences, and what did it teach you about governance?
Many years ago I was audit committee chair of a health insurance company that was selling individual health insurance policies. The math/accounting of the company showed a significant risk of deteriorating profitability of most of the contracts being sold. The CEO did not agree. The Board did agree. I lead the restructuring of the company, the sale of the existing book of business to EHealth, and relaunched the company is a provider of insurance company ERP software as a service. The company was ultimately sold to a larger software provider.
The Issue You’re Paying Closest Attention to in 2026: What topic is currently occupying the most boardroom energy for you—and why?
The impact of political and judicial decision making on the businesses I am involved in is significant. The impact has been both detrimental and supportive and tends to be abrupt. The question that I am concerned with is how shifting political leadership can cause significant reversals of these trends putting Board level decision making under pressure to be prepared for that possibility.
Where You Can Be Helpful: What issues or committee areas do you feel especially equipped to discuss with fellow directors?
I believe my experience offers to other directors the ability to navigate the transition from private to public ownership. My investment banking and accounting experience is key.
Victor Barnes, Board Director, Shentel (NASDAQ: SHEN)
Your Board Lens: What perspective do you bring to the boardroom that most shapes how you approach oversight?
I bring a CFO and transformation lens to the boardroom.
That means I tend to focus less on point-in-time performance and more on trajectory integrity. Are the underlying unit economics improving? Is free cash flow moving in the right direction? Is capital being deployed in a way that preserves optionality?
Having spent much of my career inside operating environments—most recently in connected planning and digital transformation—I’m also attentive to whether management’s narrative and the operating reality are aligned. I try to help conversations move from reviewing results to understanding drivers.
Where You’re Still Learning: What governance challenge are you currently wrestling with—or would welcome peer perspective on?
I’m increasingly interested in how boards should oversee long-range value creation in environments where technology cycles are moving faster than capital cycles.
In capital-intensive businesses especially, we approve multi-year investment programs based on underwriting models that assume stability in customer behavior, competitive dynamics, and cost curves. At the same time, AI and automation are reshaping operating models in ways that are still uneven and difficult to quantify.
The governance question I’m wrestling with is:
How do boards distinguish between structural shifts that require re-underwriting the strategy and incremental technology improvements that simply enhance execution?
Related to that is how we evaluate AI investments. Where is there measurable operating leverage? Where is it vendor noise? And how do we ensure management enthusiasm doesn’t outpace economic proof?
How does a board wrestle with this without swerving into Management’s lane?
1. What is the key to being a successful director?
It’s really about understanding your role as a director and fully embracing “your verbs”.
Let me explain.
A significant proportion of board members come from operational backgrounds.
So if you’re a current or former CEO or C-level executive you spend your days leading, managing, motivating, executing, deciding.
As an operator, these are your verbs.
Using an analogy, C-level executives tend to be player-coaches.
They are used to finding championship level talent, training them, and drawing up the best plays to put their teams in the best position to win. On occasion the player-coach might strap on their old chin guard and take the field to help secure a win.
But this is not typical of a board member.
As a director your verbs are different from that of an operator.
Board members oversee, advise, govern, evaluate, and approve.
Successful board members typically aren’t player-coaches but rather vital members of world class “front office” teams.
Our job as directors is to monitor the team’s overall direction and performance. We offer strategic advice to “the coach” (i.e., CEO) and evaluate their performance. We ensure “the franchise” (i.e., company) plays by the rules by setting governance structures and policies to ensure ethical operations and regulatory compliance. Lastly, similar to a franchise’s front office we approve significant decisions like budget, C-suite hires, major corporate actions (i.e., M&A, financing, stock issuance and buybacks), and major strategic shifts.
Bottom line, a successful director helps build an enduring franchise that creates value for stakeholders.
2. What has been your most rewarding experience as a director?
As a young director, I had the unique opportunity to chair the nominating committee for Kristi House, a South Florida child advocacy center.
I had gotten to know the president of Kristi House through mutual friends and because of the community work and my board service with a Miami-Dade Parking Authority subcommittee, she recommended me for a board position.
During my second term at Kristi House, I was asked to chair the nominating committee. While this alone was an honor, the most rewarding experience came about when I had the opportunity to recruit a strong class of directors.
Among this cohort, I had recruited a particularly high potential candidate who I thought could be great for future leadership within the organization. I had the honor to mentor him and he eventually became President of the organization.
I love identifying and nurturing talent, setting them up for future success, and this situation resulted in a win for everyone.
3. What piece of advice would you give to those looking to land their first board seat?
Be good. Be around. Be of service.
As to being good, the late Charlie Munger – Warren Buffet’s long term business partner – was known to advise;
| “To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want.”
To secure a board seat, study examples of successful directors, identify the qualities that make them effective and sought after, and develop those traits.
Being around is about being present in the right rooms.
As Woody Allen famously said, “80% of success is showing up.”
It apparently checks out as I’ve seen surveys that indicate upwards of 80% of board seats are filled through personal referrals and networks.
Do you want that referral? Join the associations and attend the events that directors do.
Ultimately, it’s not who you know, it’s who knows you and the quality of your work.
Which brings us to the final and most important piece – being of service.
Naval Ravikant, founder of AngelList, talks extensively about how the act of just “networking” is overrated. His advice is to “become first and foremost a person of value and the network will be available whenever you need it.”
Remember, boards face a lot of challenges. Having individuals that are good at navigating risks and challenges are worth their weight in gold.
Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers) summed it up, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'” It’s a complex and scary world and boards need the helpers.
So, if you’re skilled, visible, and useful, you’ll be well positioned to land your first board seat.
4. What changes do you anticipate seeing in the boardroom in the next five years?
In the next five years, boards will likely become slightly younger, more compliant, and more pervasive.
Regarding age, the average board director is about 63, while the average publicly-traded company CEO is 50 and a venture-backed company CEO is around 45. As boards’ needs evolve, they will require more input from active operators who navigate rapidly changing competitive and macroeconomic environments. To keep up, boards will need fresh perspectives and digital savvy, attributes typically found in operators who are more than ten years younger than the current average.
As to compliance, regulatory scrutiny tends to move in one direction … more. Also, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) will present new compliance and oversight challenges, particularly regarding data privacy, cybersecurity, and ethical AI use. Boards will need to enhance their frameworks to keep pace with regulatory requirements and maintain stakeholder trust.
Lastly, expect an increase in the number of boards as more companies remain private longer. While there are only about 4,000 publicly-traded companies in the U.S. (down from roughly 8,000 in the mid-1990s), there are about five times as many private equity-backed businesses in the US. Additionally, there are over 50,000 private venture-backed U.S. startups.
As more dollars flow into the private markets, investors and institutional LPs will likely demand greater oversight and governance that only well-constituted boards can provide.
CBM Network Advisory Board member Jonathan Foster, Director, Lear Corporation (NYSE: LEA), Amcor (AMCR), and author, On Board: The Modern Playbook for Corporate Governance.
Your Board Lens: What perspective do you bring to the boardroom that most shapes how you approach oversight?
Over my 35+ year career, I have been primarily an investment banker focused on mergers and acquisitions in numerous industries and an expert witness in corporate litigation. Also, I have now been on more than 50 board, including Fortune 500 companies, smaller public companies, private companies and distressed companies. So, while I have certainly not seen it all, I have seen a lot.
A Defining Board Moment: What has been one of your most meaningful—or instructive—board experiences, and what did it teach you about governance?
I think often of two poor experiences and one excellent one. On the negative side, I remember my first major board meeting as an investment banker back in 1990, when I was the junior member of the Lazard team advising Wheelabrator on its merger with Waste Management. Michael Dingman, who later renounced his US citizenship and moved to Nassau, was the swashbuckling CEO of Wheelabrator. I looked over at one point, and while I had been on the edge of my seat for an hour just taking it all in, Dingman’s eyes were shut tight, and he seemed to be asleep. That same year over the Christmas holiday period, in a separate deal, the United Airlines pilots acquired control of the airline. Again, as the young associate on the Lazard team, I sat in a large conference room in the Regency Hotel in New York City, where the “power breakfast” originated, as the United board approved this deal. My recollection is that just one director asked just one question: “Will our free first-class tickets continue to be available after the transaction closes?” I knew that governance had to be better.
The first substantial public company on whose bord I sat was Masonite, a leading manufacturer of residential and commercial doors. George Lorch, who has sadly passed away, was a fellow director and the former CEO of Armstrong, the flooring and ceiling company and an experienced director. Time and again we would finish a two-day meeting, and I would say to myself, “George made just a few comments, but each one was thoughtful and helpful.” That’s a good director. I always try to remember to listen first and just speak when I have a meaningful question or am pretty sure I have something thoughtful to say.
Where You Can Be Helpful: What issues or committee areas do you feel especially equipped to discuss with fellow directors?
Given my background, I bring broad based sector knowledge with a finance and governance background. I trust that I can be particularly helpful with strategic issues (Should we separate this non-core asset? How should we go about CEO succession?), capital allocation considerations (Is a stock repurchase program appropriate for us? What is the optimum capital structure for our company at this time?) and audit committee matters (Are we comfortable with our control environment? How can we communicate our story more effectively?)
Where You’re Still Learning: What governance challenge are you currently wrestling with—or would welcome peer perspective on?
The answer has to be AI. You can’t oversee effectively – a board’s job is to oversee management on behalf of the shareholders – unless you understand the key issues. And AI is ubiquitous. All directors need to quickly develop at least a basic understanding of AI, including safety issues, use cases and how it can make a company more efficient while also understanding its impact on the company’s competitive position. Also, how can AI help a board be more effective – and does it belong in the boardroom?
The Issue You’re Paying Closest Attention to in 2026: What topic is currently occupying the most boardroom energy for you—and why?
At the moment, in addition to AI, it is inflation. We are currently experiencing substantial inflation driven most recently by the conflict with Iran. Many companies are trying to pass on increased costs to customers who of course try to pass it on to consumers. The reason inflation is so insidious is that prices do not come down quickly or even often. So, helping management think about how to pass along increased costs and understanding what inflation means for strategy and market share is crucial at the moment.
A Board Habit That Makes a Difference: What small practice or discipline has meaningfully improved how your board operates?
Working hard to challenge management and oversee thoughtfully, not get into the details. And making sure that everyone has a chance to speak — remember, every director has one vote and equal liability
