Develop your board as a team, not one course certificate at a time
Public courses train individuals. Our development programs train your board, designed around your evaluation findings, your strategy and your regulatory context, and delivered in your boardroom.
Our members, alumni and clients come from iconic organizations
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Sending directors on courses doesn't develop a board
Individual directors return from excellent programs into unchanged boardrooms. The dynamics, the habits, the blind spots: all still there. Real board development happens collectively: the whole board, confronting its own agenda, with an experienced practitioner in the room.
GBI builds development programs from your reality: evaluation findings, upcoming strategic decisions, regulatory change in your markets, and the specific gaps in your skills matrix. Sessions use your cases, not textbook ones, and they compound, because every director shares the same reference points afterwards.
A development program built for your boardroom
Every engagement is scoped to your board after a short brief, no off-the-shelf documents, no generic templates.
Development needs diagnostic
We assess your board's development priorities from evaluation results, skills matrix gaps, director interviews and your forward agenda.
Custom program design
A sequenced curriculum (module topics, formats, faculty and timing) mapped to your board calendar so development never competes with governing.
In-boardroom masterclasses
Practitioner-led sessions on the topics boards ask for most: AI governance, ESG oversight, strategy oversight, risk appetite, financial stewardship, succession.
Director cohort programs
Structured journeys for groups: new directors, future committee chairs, family next-generation members, with GBI's credit-rated content where certification adds value.
1:1 chair and director coaching
Confidential coaching for chairs, committee chairs or individual directors, often the highest-leverage intervention a board can buy.
Progress reporting
Clear reporting to the chair or nomination committee on participation, feedback and development outcomes, evidence for your annual governance report.
A clear process, designed around your board's calendar
We keep demands on director time deliberately light. Most of the work happens between meetings, not in them.
Diagnostic brief
We review your evaluation findings, skills matrix and forward agenda with the chair to define development priorities.
Program design
We design the curriculum, select faculty from GBI's global network of experienced chairs and directors, and align the schedule with your board calendar.
Delivery
Sessions delivered in your boardroom or offsite, in person or hybrid, each one anchored in your live agenda items.
Reinforcement & measurement
Post-session toolkits, 1:1 follow-ups where useful, and progress reporting to the chair at agreed intervals.
The GBI Boardroom Learning Journey™
Adult executives don't learn from lectures. Every GBI program applies four design rules that make development stick at board level.
Anchored
Every session built on your board's live agenda, real decisions, real cases, your regulatory context.
Collective
The board learns together, building shared language and reference points that change behaviour in the next meeting.
Practitioner-led
Faculty who have chaired boards and sat in your seat, supported by GBI's university credit-rated curriculum.
Measured
Defined outcomes, participation tracking and chair-level reporting, development you can evidence to shareholders and regulators.
The Board Development Planning Canvas
A one-page planning tool that turns evaluation findings and strategy priorities into a 12-month board development plan, plus GBI's catalogue of boardroom masterclass topics.
- One-page canvas: from board priorities to development calendar
- The 12 most-requested boardroom masterclass topics for 2026
- How to budget director development (with per-format guidance)
- Self-check: 8 signs your board has a development gap
Get your copy
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Advisory led by practitioners, not theorists
Wassim Karkabi
Founder & Executive Chairman, Global Board Institute
Wassim advises boards, chairs and shareholders across the GCC and internationally on governance, board effectiveness and director development. He leads every advisory engagement personally, supported by GBI's global faculty of experienced chairs and directors.
“For the first time our directors were developed as one board, on our agenda. The AI governance sessions changed the questions we ask management every quarter.”
Chair, financial services groupFrequently asked questions
How is this different from GBI's public courses and diplomas?
Our diplomas and certificates develop individuals in open cohorts. Development programs are private to your board: your context, your cases, your calendar. Where certification adds value, we embed our credit-rated curriculum, so directors can earn recognized credentials inside the program.
What topics can programs cover?
Any area of board responsibility. Current demand centers on AI governance, ESG and sustainability oversight, strategy and risk oversight, financial stewardship, succession, and boardroom dynamics. Your diagnostic sets the agenda, not our catalogue.
Who delivers the sessions?
GBI faculty: experienced chairs, directors and subject specialists, matched to your sector and topics. The lead faculty for each program is agreed with you at design stage, by name.
Can programs run alongside our normal board meetings?
That's the recommended design: 90-120 minute modules attached to scheduled meetings, with deeper intensives at your annual offsite. It maximizes attendance and eliminates extra travel.
Do you develop family businesses' next generation?
Yes. Next-generation director readiness programs are a core offering for family enterprises in the GCC, usually combining cohort learning with 1:1 mentoring by an experienced independent director.
How are programs priced?
By design: number of modules, format, faculty and cohort size. After the diagnostic brief we propose a fixed program fee. Book a call to discuss what your board needs.
Give your board the development it gives everyone else
Book a call with our founder. Bring your last evaluation or simply your sense of where the board needs to grow. We will sketch a program approach on the call.
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