Clare Flynn Levy

I had the pleasure of attending the NACD New England Chapter event on September 17 in Boston, “Leading Minds of Governance & Tech” for Board members. A big thank you to Ellen Richstone and the organizers for putting together such an insightful event. The CEO panel featured incredible perspectives from CEOs like Tamara Lundgren from Radius Recycling, Sean Keohane from Cabot Corporation, Greg Smith from Teradyne, and Gary Cohen from iRobot. The discussions were rich and thought-provoking. Corporations must be nimble and think long term but be prepared to react promptly in a high frequency environment. Routine jobs are at risk. People are excited about Ai to replace someone else’s job.  Discussion of "New Collar jobs". As manufacturing jobs try to make a comeback in the US, many of them are going to be New Collar Jobs instead of the traditional blue-collar jobs. US companies will have to be competitive with their cost structure, so the New Collar Jobs will be created in reimagined manufacturing settings.  New-collar jobs will require advanced technical and soft skills for emerging tech fields like AI, cloud computing, and data science, but do not always necessitate a four-year degree. These roles combine the hands-on approach of blue-collar work with the higher earning potential and stability of white-collar jobs, emphasizing practical training, apprenticeships, certifications, and continuous upskilling rather than traditional degrees. The concept of new collar jobs, mentioned by the panel, was coined by former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, based on the rise of new technologies like AI, cloud computing, and data science, which create jobs demanding different skill sets.  There was another great panel discussion moderated by Ellen Richstone on the Governance Expert Panel consisting of Robyn Bew  Richard J. Bannister, Jr. Elyssa (Emsellem) Kutner and Matt Talcoff  Key takeaways from the panel – is your company ready for new international trade; Boards need to be agile to manage the human capital and technology tradeoff. Boards should be prepared to consider more scenarios (short and longer term) to manage their risks. Many institutional investors are getting quiet about what they expect from companies especially in the context of ESG. The 2026 proxy season will be quite different  Also a great discussion between Rich Lesser from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Richard Fields from Russell Reynolds Associates. Boards should be factoring Ai, geopolitics and resilience in their discussions.  The world is evolving from “Just in Time” to “Just in Case” Four steps for resilience: prepare, absorb, adapt and reimagine.  Deborah Rosenthal Larissa Ravetto Jim Dodge Sharon Rossi Bryan McCorry Ozge Kurtoglu  #Governance #TechLeadership #NewCollarJobs #AI #BoardMembers #CorporateAgility #ESG #Resilience #ContinuousLearning https://lnkd.in/eQhYT6vd

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I’ve been digging into our 2026 Reference Point benchmarking report, and there’s some compelling data in this year’s findings. A few things that stood out to me: ●Participants who use advice and education save at a rate 29% higher than nonusers ●78% of plans have adopted at least one optional SECURE 2.0 provision ●Participants in their 50s and 60s are increasing savings rates by 1.4 percentage points The report draws on 2025 data from more than two million active participants. If you’re interested in where plan trends are heading, it’s worth a look.

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Tomorrow, I'll be at Mar-a-Lago for the World Liberty Financial Forum. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig — 400 leaders in one room. World Liberty Financial Forum is promising groundbreaking announcements. ETHDenver opens today — the world's largest web3 builder event. But side events dropped 85% from last year. The hype crowd left. The builders didn't. That's what maturation looks like. In Frankfurt, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel just called for euro-denominated stablecoins — a direct response to the U.S. GENIUS Act. Dollar stablecoins sit at $310 billion. Euro stablecoins? €650 million. Europe just declared a stablecoin sovereignty race and is targeting a Digital Euro by 2029. Three continents. Three plays for the future of money. All happening this week. 60-second breakdown in the video below.

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For the last decade, tech companies optimized for scale: repeatable hiring plans, functional specialization, predictable org charts. I think the next decade will be defined by something harder to achieve: leverage.  The defining trait of AI-first companies won’t necessarily be how much AI they deploy. It will be how willing they are to revisit long-held assumptions about what work exists, who should do it, and how organizations should be structured in the first place. Very excited to finally share the thought piece we at ICONIQ have been working on. Thank you to the many contributors Anu Bharadwaj Dennis Lyandres Diane K. Adams Kipp Bodnar Matt Eccleston Michael Curtis Michelle Morris Jesse Collins Patrick Forquer Rob Bernshteyn who shared their perspectives. This space is evolving faster than any single perspective can capture. If you’re experimenting with new workforce models, seeing something different in your organization, or simply disagree with parts of this thesis, I’d love to hear from you! https://lnkd.in/g66NxYVK

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AI is reshaping talent acquisition — accelerating sourcing, screening, and matching to cut time-to-hire and boost candidate quality. Georgetown MSB highlights how algorithmic tools can turn recruiting into an efficiency engine for recruiting, if paired with strong governance and human oversight. #AI #TalentAcquisition #FutureOfWork #RecruitmentTech #HRInnovation #georgetown https://lnkd.in/eQx2gA8d

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Endowment campaigns can be game-changers for organizations—but only if the timing, structure, and community alignment are right. Check out this new article for the 2025 summer issue of HaYidion: The Prizmah Journal. Thank you Amy Schiffman of Evolve Giving Group for inviting me to help you outline the seven essential conditions that schools should evaluate before launching an endowment effort. We also unpack: - What makes endowment campaigns different from annual or capital campaigns? - How else can leaders thoughtfully approach long-term sustainability? Read the full article here:  https://lnkd.in/gunMj9FU #Endowments #EndowmentStrategy #SchoolSustainability #StrategicPlanning

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Execution. Execution. Execution. Consulting is shifting fast. Clients want outcomes, not slide decks, and execution is now the real differentiator. This LensView breaks down why strategy-led models are under pressure and why firms built around engineering depth are pulling ahead. IMHO, worth a read if you're watching the market change in real time. #AI #Consulting #DigitalTransformation https://lnkd.in/gn27V9UJ

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As Ben Horowitz cogently argues, training that is even minimally effective in improving employee performance delivers a huge return on investment. And yet corporations persistently under-invest in training and are reluctant to allow employees to do upskilling during the workday, while they are on the clock.

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Director duties are always something that I stress to Clients when they are appointed as a Director. It is incredibly important that they understand their statutory obligations but also their fiduciary and practical duties. A point that influential figures in a business need to consider, be they employees or external consultants, is that s.251 of the Companies Act 2006 can impose Director duties on an individual who is not formally appointed to the position of Director, if it can be shown that they were a controlling mind when it comes to Board decisions. Director duties carry both civil and criminal sanctions so if you are in a position of influence, even if you are not directly employed by the company, you can still have liability.

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