In my work in executive search, it is blessedly rare these days for discussions about leadership or board succession NOT to include the topic of diversity. The frequency and comfort level many corporate leaders now have discussing diversity is something to celebrate in and of itself.

Companies with global aspirations require boards with global capability. So why don’t their boards reflect this new strategic direction? The findings of the 2014 Egon Zehnder Global Board Index™ reveal a Global Capability Gap, named by Egon Zehnder to describe the disparity between a company’s global footprint and the global experience of board members.

“A Framework for Leadership” was the topic of Gizem Weggemans’ presentation at The Indie Summit at the Royal College of Physicians on 14th June in London. The Indie Summit is the only large-scale global conference and networking event exclusively for Owners, CEOs and Senior Directors of the world’s leading independent marketing and communications agencies.

In the digital age, companies in every industry must unleash a new wave of innovation – or be disrupted by aggressive new competitors. Digital is transforming everything from consumer behavior to employee engagement to the management of cities and infrastructure.

Karena Strella and James Martin on the traits that really promise great leadership.

As private equity firms look to maximize value from their investments, it is critical to ensure that portfolio company management teams have the right capabilities to execute against their investment theses. Though in many cases the underlying premise will lie in backing an existing management team, it is increasingly common for private equity firms to bring in a new CFO early in the lifespan of an investment.

After you’ve been fired, getting back into the job market can be difficult. Egon Zehnder Senior Advisor Claudio Fernández-Aráoz offered his expertise on how best to approach this situation in Harvard Business Review.

With attacks from financial activists on the rise, companies are starting to beef up their boards with experienced experts, reports the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Both major concerns and smaller, family-run firms in Switzerland have launched board-level recruitment drives over the last 6 months, confirms Philippe Hertig, partner at Egon Zehnder in Zurich.

The European commission is to push for a quota for women on company boards to address the slow progress to gender equality in the senior ranks of publicly listed businesses. Previous attempts by the EU’s executive to set a 40% goal for women in the top ranks of listed companies have been blocked by Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden overs fears that Brussels was overreaching into domestic affairs. Hungary and Poland have opposed the move on ideological grounds.

Digitalization, automation, robotization, artificial intelligence – our society is in the midst of a fundamental transformation. It impacts on companies and of course on executive search firms as well, says Michael Ensser, Managing Partner of Egon Zehnder Germany, in an interview with German business daily Handelsblatt.