(0:00) About the Boardroom Governance Summit (Aug 26-27, 2026) (1:17) Intro (2:45) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel. (3:31) Start of interview. (4:39) AI and Governance Today (5:34) Data Center Politics (reference to moratorium by New York State) (6:48) About the 3rd Rome Conference on AI, Ethics and Governance (9:06) AI Hype and Job Fears (14:45) Birth and focus of The Chairs Circle and Limerick Lane Cellars. (22:53) CEO Succession Lessons (30:58) Founders versus Boards (37:04) EVs and China’s Rise (44:58) Semiconductors, Chips and Geopolitics (49:03) Boards in a Fractured World &quot;[W]e now need to have engaged board members, board members who are curious, who read, who stay up to speed on things, who keep asking more questions. You cannot have directors who are just calling it in anymore.&quot; (53:31) Government as Shareholder Karen Francis DeGolia is a board member at Vontier, CelLink, and NAUTO. Penny Herscher is a board member at Lumentum, Penguin Solutions, Forvia SA, and Modern Health. You can follow Evan on social media at: Website: boardroom-governance.com X: @evanepstein LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BoardroomGovernance __ To support this podcast you can join as a subscriber of the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at https://evanepstein.substack.com/ __ Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

Karen Francis and Penny Herscher: The Chairs' View of a Changing World

Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

[SPEAKER_A] Before we start, I want to personally invite directors, investors, and governance leaders to join us at the inaugural Boardroom Governance Summit taking place August 26th and 27th at Limerick Lane Cellars in Healdsburg, California. If you listen to this podcast because you care about better boardroom conversations, this summit was designed for you. Think of it as the podcast, but live. We're bringing together a select group of directors, investors, executives, and governance leaders for 2 days of candid discussion on the issues shaping boards today, from AI, CEO succession and board leadership to innovation, geopolitics, shareholder expectations, and long-term value creation. We'll open with Leo Strein, former Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, and continue with directors and executives from companies including Arista Networks, Box, Broadcom, DocuSign, Illumina, Okta, Salesforce, Snowflake, and United Airlines. The goal is simple: thoughtful people, practical conversations, and a setting where directors can speak candidly and learn from each other. Space is limited and we're only about 6 weeks away. You can register at luma.com/BGPsummit. Again, luma.com/BGPsummit. Welcome to the Boardroom Governance Podcast. I'm your host, Evan Epstein. In this episode, I talk with Karen Francis and Penny Herscher. Karen is a board chair, director, and owner of Limerick Lane Cellars. She currently serves as chair of Vontier and as a director of CellLink and Nauru. Penny is a technology CEO, entrepreneur, and public company director. She currently serves as chair of Lumentum and Penguin Solutions and as a board member at Forvia and Modern Health. This is a special episode because both Karen and Penny have been on the podcast before, but this is the first time we are bringing them together for a joint conversation.

Karen Francis and Penny Herscher: The Chairs' View of a Changing World

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Karen Francis and Penny Herscher: The Chairs' View of a Changing World

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.