Susan F. Shultz, Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Susan founded The Board Institute, Inc., with the sole purpose of helping to build better boards. Taking this mission and coupling it with her deep experience in board management and recruitment, the team has developed the only professional, independent, web-based suite of tools to help organizations assess, benchmark and enhance their boards of directors and their committees.
Susan Shultz founded SSA Executive Search International, Ltd. in 1981, and has conducted senior-level searches nationally and internationally, specializing in building and structuring corporate boards. She is recognized as a leading expert in corporate governance. She authored the highly acclaimed The Board Book: Making Your Corporate Board a Strategic Force in Your Company’s Success and has been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today, Strategic Finance, the Economist, CFO Magazine and numerous other media. She also leads the Global Board Practice for INAC Executive Search Worldwide (43 countries), helping public and private companies to build better boards of directors.
She has spoken about corporate boards and executive search at The Business Roundtable; the Economist CFO Forum, Tokyo; The Chengdu Chamber of Commerce, China; “Board Strategies at Private Equity Portfolio Companies”, to private equity executives, New York City; the advanced director symposium at the Anderson School, UCLA; Women Corporate Directors, Mexico City, Helsinki, Dubai, New Delhi; The Commonwealth Club; the Canadian Chartered Accountants, Montreal; the Financial Executives Int’l Annual Summit, Semantic Annual CIO Symposium; The Economist CFO Forum, Tokyo; the US-Asia Investment & Business Expo; the INAC search symposium, Amsterdam, Bogota, and Mexico City, various CEO gatherings; and to many other organizations.
Before establishing her search firm, Susan had a marketing firm, an import-export company, and was a consultant/media director for many U.S. state and federal political campaigns. She was a columnist and investigative reporter for Phoenix Magazine for 15 years and has written for numerous other publications. Prior to that, she managed legislation for Rep. William E. Brock in Washington, D. C. Susan received a B.A. in Government and Economics from the University of Arizona and completed all core graduate work in International Affairs and International Economics at George Washington University.
Susan was Nom. Chair, Phoenix Bank, and director of the accredited college subsidiary of TesserAct(Nasdaq). She was President of Charter 100, chaired the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations for 16 years, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (NYC), the Pacific Council on International Policy (Los Angeles), is Co-Chair of Women Corporate Directors Arizona and is a director of the Arizona Technology Council Foundation, Charter 100, and serves on the Selection Committee for Arizona Tech Angels. She was President of the Arizona Business Leadership Association, a member of SBA’s eight-member National Small Business Development Center Advisory Board and numerous other boards.
Mark Edwards, Ph.D., Chief Metrics & Behavioral Research Advisor
Mark brings to The Board Institute his experience as an author and Professor of Survey Research at ASU, leading the charge to continually enhance and optimize the unique methodology employed in TBI’s indexes. Mark is the creator of the 360-degree feedback methodology and author of the best-selling book 360 Feedback. Mark is also the CEO of TEAMS, Inc., a consulting firm implementing the 360-degree approach now in use at more than 100 companies.
Daniel A. Sharp, J.D., Principal
Dan Sharp is an attorney and recognized thought leader and practitioner of global risk management, strategy, and organizational resilience. Fortune Magazine profiled Mr. Sharp as one of 25 Who Help the U.S. Win and his innovative approach to Continuous Resilience has been featured in Harvard Leadership Magazine, Accountancy Futures Journal and a Harvard Business School case study. Mr. Sharp is a Principal with The Board Institute and was a leader and the originator in the creation of TBI Protiviti Board Risk Oversight Meter.
Global Consulting on Risk Management and Resilience including to Xerox, BP, Unisys, IBM, General Foods, Texas Instruments, Business International, Aqua Sciences, CollectiveIQ, Emory University, Healthy Home plus the Governments of China, Spain, and the U.S.
CEO of Eisenhower Foundation, the Royal Institution World Science Assembly, and the American Assembly.
Strategic Advisor to Global NGOs and Government Agencies, including:
- U.S. Department of Commerce, Council on Competitiveness, The Conference Board, The Infrastructure Security Partnership.
- International organizations including The Club of Madrid, with King Juan Carlos and Mikhail Gorbachev, which counts more than 90 former democratic presidents and prime ministers as members, and the World Justice Project, founded by the ABA to advance Rule of Law, with 500 world leaders from more than 100 countries.
J.D. Harvard Law School / B.A. University of California at Berkeley
Taught global corporate strategy, risk management, and resilience for corporate boards, executives and graduate students at institutions including Harvard Business School, Columbia University, Yale School of Management, Rotman School of Management at Toronto University, The Aspen Institute, and London Business School.
Marketing Team
Andrew Wyant, Founder, Story Builder Studios, former President, National Academy of Sports Medicine, DEMANDology, former Vice President, Marketing, LifeLock, University of Pennsylvania, the Wharton School.
Ray Eldard, Creative Director, Brand Doctor and Storyteller-in-Chief, Re:Creative, former Creative Director, Contatta, Infusion Soft, LifeLock, National Academy of Sports Medicine, former Writer, Nike, Weber State University.
Brock Lefferts, Brand and Design Manager, WebPT, Graphic Designer, National Academy of Sports Medicine, Light Technology Publishing, Northern Arizona University.
Joy Bezanis, Marketing Director
Joy has a diverse background in legal, marketing and project management. That coupled with her B.A. in Graphic & Web Design allows her to perform a wide range of duties for The Board Institute.
Carl Nisser, Esq., Advisor
Carl has been a Junior Appellate Court Judge in Sweden, Legal Affairs Director at Volvo in Brussels, held various senior executive positions at Goodyear International, including Director of Corporate Affairs. For over 25 years Carl has a partner at Lindahl, the third-largest Swedish law firm and a consultant to SJ Berwin, McGuireWoods and Miller Rosenfalck, London.
Carl is an entrepreneur and has owned, set up, managed and co-managed companies in Europe, Indonesia, and the U.S. He has been a management consultant, a project manager at U.S. AID, and lived and worked in seven countries in Asia and Europe. Carl has learned eight languages and studied at the universities at Coimbra, Portugal; Strasbourg, France; Uppsala, Sweden, and Harvard Business School. He has been awarded two Master’s Degrees.
Carl has contributed to a smart card innovation for which a U.S. patent was obtained and taught at universities in Europe and the U.S. He is an author of several books and articles. He has been or is a member of the Board of Directors of listed and private companies in Belgium, Sweden, UK, and the U.S. as well as charitable companies.
In 1975 Carl set up the European Government-Business Relations Council, aka the Ad Hoc Council. He is a director of the Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the U.S., a Liveryman at the Worshipful Company of Fuellers, London and Advisor to Relational Thinking, Cambridge, UK.