Director Bandwidth Is Becoming a More Visible Test of Board Effectiveness
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Corporate Board Practices

Director Bandwidth Is Becoming a More Visible Test of Board Effectiveness

11 June 2026 / Quick Take

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In the latest Board Effectiveness: A Survey of the C-Suite report from PwC and The Conference Board, executives point to director capacity as the leading barrier to stronger board performance: 47% say directors serving on too many other boards prevents their board from being more effective, ahead of slow reaction to emerging risks and opportunities and not keeping pace with digital transformation. As board agendas expand, director capacity is increasingly coming under scrutiny, and overboarding may be operating as a proxy for wider issues.

In the latest Board Effectiveness: A Survey of the C-Suite report from PwC and The Conference Board, executives point to director capacity as the leading barrier to stronger board performance: 47% say directors serving on too many other boards prevents their board from being more effective, ahead of slow reaction to emerging risks and opportunities and not keeping pace with digital transformation. As board agendas expand, director capacity is increasingly coming under scrutiny, and overboarding may be operating as a proxy for wider issues.
 

Companies have gradually tightened their overboarding policies

Limit on for-profit board directorships in the S&P 500, 2020-2025

Note: Data reflect companies with overboarding policies that apply to all directors; n=336 (2020), 345 (2021), 364 (2022), 373 (2024), 406 (2024), 427 (2025) 
Source: The Conference Board/ESGAUGE, 2026

Trusted Insights for What’s Ahead®

  • Large companies have increasingly formalized expectations around director commitments. In the S&P 500, the share of companies with an overboarding policy that applies to all directors increased from 68% in 2020 t

Author

Ariane Marchis-Mouren

Ariane Marchis-Mouren Ariane Marchis-Mouren

Senior Researcher, Corporate Governance
The Conference Board

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