Global board priorities for 2027: Key governance challenges

I recently attended the annual meeting of the Global Network of Director Institutes (GNDI) in Buenos Aires. The meeting was held alongside the annual conference of the Institute for Corporate and Public Governance (IGEP), Argentina's equivalent of the AICD.

The GNDI represents 26 leading director institutes from Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. As chair for 2026 and 2027, I'm fortunate to have the chance to engage with governance leaders and organisations from around the world. While every market faces its own challenges, it's striking how similar the issues we're encountering are.

Our discussions reinforced familiar themes – geopolitical risk, capital allocation, technology and Al oversight, sustainability and the professional expectations placed on modern directors. GNDI is a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas, learn from one another's experiences and strengthen our global governance connections.

Back home, I'm pleased to have engaged with so many of you at our annual Essential Director Update (EDU) series, with sessions held in metropolitan and regional centres around the country over September-October.

As the AICD's signature complimentary event, the EDU offers members an invaluable opportunity to hear the latest from some of Australia's most senior directors.

This year's presentations from Fortescue director Penny Bingham-Hall FAICD and Dexus director Peeyush Gupta AM FAICD were informative and instructive on the challenges and how to address them. I thank them for generously sharing their insights, experiences and expertise, especially given the demands of an increasingly complex operating environment.

Peeyush focused on three challenges defining Australian boardrooms – how we manage crises to build genuine organisationalresilience; how we design the information architecture required to enable sound board judgements; and how we safely leverage Al to drive competitive advantage without exposing our organisations to catastrophic risk.

To paraphrase his advice: prepare for the handling of a crisis, leverage our data to drive strategy, use Al to drive efficiency, but human common sense to drive the business.

Penny highlighted how deployment decisions aren't just commercial, but affect workers, customers and communities.

Boards play a key role in identifying these human impacts and overseeing steps to mitigate potential harms. She also provided a pulse check on the evolution of climate reporting, transition planning and understanding psychosocial hazards in the workplace in such a dynamic and uncertain operating environment.

Our fifth Climate Governance Forum put climate and energy challenges front and centre. I noted that climate governance is increasingly part of a broader resilience challenge confronting boards. While some may view climate as having moved lower on the board agenda, the reality is more nuanced. It is increasingly considered part of organisational resilience and strategy.

Resilience will be a dominant thread across national policy fronts for the foreseeable future, from fuel and energy supply to critical infrastructure security and cyberthreats.

While specific board challenges will continue to evolve, the foundations of good governance remain consistent. Whether responding to a crisis, overseeing the quality of information flowing to the board, or navigating the opportunities and risks of Al, directors are exercising the same fundamental duty: applying care, diligence and sound judgement in the best interests of the organisation.

Boards must foster a culture where issues are surfaced early, remain informed about the organisation and its operations, oversee robust risk management frameworks, and ensure reporting delivers insight, not information overload. Strong foundations help boards ask the right questions, challenge assumptions and make sound decisions.

Ultimately, good governance is about ensuring our organisations are resilient, well-informed and equipped to thrive. 

This article first appeared as 'CEO letter' in the Oct/Nov 2026 issue of Company Director Magazine .