Directors Academy Expands NextGen Directors Program to Accelerate Diverse and Underrepresented Talent on Private Equity Company Boards

BOSTON, MA, April 19, 2021– Directors Academy, a national not-for-profit focused on identifying, developing and advancing the next generation of diverse corporate board members, and Bain Capital today announced the launch of the 2021-22 NextGen Directors Program (“NextGen”) to accelerate the appointment of members of underrepresented groups on public and private company Boards of Directors.  Bain Capital will support the NextGen Program across the private capital and alternative assets industry with the goal of developing future directors for placement on private equity and private company boards.  Bain Capital is the exclusive sponsor of the private equity development track and will serve on the Directors Academy Board.

The NextGen Director's Program provides governance education and training for future corporate board members from diverse backgrounds who are underrepresented on boards of directors.  The program’s goal is to better prepare these individuals for their first board experience through an immersive peer-to-peer learning environment that offers educational sessions, one-on-one mentoring, an interactive case study, panel discussions, and networking opportunities.  The program covers a full range of corporate director duties and responsibilities, the work of the full board and individual committees, emerging governance issues and best practices exchange.

The NextGen program is led by corporate board members with extensive governance experience across a wide variety of public and private companies, and University of California, Berkeley faculty who address emerging topics of importance to public and private boards, including technology disruption, go-to-market growth strategies, and ESG issues, among others.  As part of the partnership, Bain Capital will provide content development, business case examples, and faculty for the Private Equity track.  To date, 10 cohorts totaling 115 future director candidates have participated in the NextGen program, including 99 corporate leaders and 16 not-for-profit leaders, of whom 58% are female and 44% are people of color.  NextGen program alums - are providing their expertise on 48 corporate boards, split 46% private company and 54% public company boards, with 64% people of color appointments including 52% new Black directors.

“We are excited to extend our programming to focus specifically on the different skills and experiences needed on private company boards and to continue to build on our national community of over 200 high-performing board leaders and diverse next generation director candidates,” said Keith Meyer, Co-Founder and President of the Directors Academy.  “We look forward to working with Bain Capital to better prepare future leaders from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds for their first board experience.”

The NextGen program aims to accelerate shareholder value creation by building a pipeline of highly credentialed prospective board members from diverse backgrounds, experiences, ethnicities, and genders.  The program disrupts the current board selection process by educating, exposing and socializing the next generation of diverse board members to governance best practices while also connecting participants to a national network of progressive governance leaders who help facilitate the matching of this talent to current and future board opportunities.

“Not only will we as a firm greatly benefit from participating firsthand in this innovative program, we believe it will help advance the effort to bring greater overall diversity to our industry by creating a broader pool of talent and fostering an ecosystem that is more diverse, equitable, and inclusive,” shared Susan Levine, a Managing Director at Bain Capital, who will also serve on the Directors Academy Board.

The 2021-22 NextGen Directors Program will commence with a virtual launch on June 4, 2021.  The program includes four main sessions that will run through March 2022, and inter-session networking and mentorship opportunities.  The program will conclude with an in-person capstone session at the University of California, Berkeley Haas Business School in March 2022.  Registration is now open, and applicants can apply here: https://executive.berkeley.edu/programs/nextgen-directors-program.

Directors Academy
The Directors Academy provides corporate governance education and training for future board members from diverse backgrounds who are underrepresented on boards of directors.  Our goal is to better prepare senior executives for their first board experience.  The program is taught by practitioners with extensive private and public company governance leadership experience, and University of California, Berkeley faculty who address emerging topics of importance to boards.  To learn more, visit www.directorsacademy.com. 

About Bain Capital 
Bain Capital, LP is one of the world’s leading private multi-asset alternative investment firms that creates lasting impact for our investors, teams, businesses, and the communities in which we live. Since our founding in 1984, we’ve applied our insight and experience to organically expand into numerous asset classes including private equity, credit, public equity, venture capital, real estate and other strategic areas of focus. The firm has offices on four continents, more than 1,200 employees and approximately $130 billion in assets under management. To learn more, visit www.baincapital.com or follow Bain Capital on LinkedIn and Twitter.