Roberta Sydney is an independent board member who has been a CEO, founder-entrepreneur, corporate executive, and board chair. She currently serves as chair of HEI Civil, a large private civil construction company. She is also on the board of ARIS (a public REIT) and chairs their Nominating and Governance Committee. Before she began her board career journey, Roberta came to the Women on Boards (WOB) program to sharpen her skills, explore best practices, and broaden her community of board contacts.
Why did you choose to attend the Women on Boards program at HBS?
When I first began targeting board service, I was getting a lot of activity and spending a lot of time meeting people, but I wasn't getting traction. I felt that attending the program with 120-plus women from around the globe would be a great way to expand my board network. And at that time, I didn't know about the WomenExecs on Boards (WEOB) network, which is composed of past participants of HBS Executive Education programs.
My industry experience is in financial services, money management firms, and real estate development. What I ultimately learned from my pals in WOB and WEOB was that if I focused on those lanes or two degrees to either side, I could get traction. And that's made a huge difference in my board journey.
In what ways has the program enhanced your service on boards?
Any sort of education or certification definitely helps you stand out from all the other people that might be considered for boards. My participation in the WOB program demonstrates that I'm a lifelong learner who is willing to commit to sharpening my skills, learning more about best practices, and then bringing them to the company and its boardroom.
What is one thing that you wish you'd known before joining a board?
I knew a lot about boards prior to joining the program because I had developed my own board for my own commercial real estate development business. One of the things that surprised me most is how much the people matter—it's a team that you're joining when you accept a board appointment. The collegiality, insularity, and willingness to open up and really debate things is unique to each board, so trying to discern that before you join is often hard. I wish that I'd known just how difficult that was to figure out beforehand.
How has your network from Women on Boards and WomenExecs on Boards continued to support you?
I have an MBA from Harvard Business School, so I know how vast the network is here. By its very nature, the WEOB-WOB network has great value. At the end of the program, we didn’t want this network to just say goodbye. We wanted to stay connected and find ways to help one another. I think that the value of this specific program is especially tied to networking because 80 to 90 percent of board appointments are made through networking, not through board search firms.