Laura Kiernan

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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Proud to share that \#GrantThornton is expanding our advisory and tax practice with the addition of Stax, a top diligence provider. Together, we’ll bring private equity firms and their portfolio companies even stronger M&A support and value-creation strategies. Excited to see how this step forward strengthens the way we deliver for our clients. Learn more here. https://bit.ly/3UB0Ipi

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For the third year running, we see media & entertainment as a poster child of creative destruction. Streaming continues to wrestle with structural challenges as television searches for a successor to the cable model. Platforms with very different strategies are now converging into one-stop shops for short-form, long-form, live, and creator content—with YouTube and Netflix leading the charge. Meanwhile, AI’s unprecedented rise is reshaping the landscape. Search is fragmenting beyond Google as AI agents deliver answers instead of links. Gaming is undergoing its own AI revolution, and across media and entertainment, M&A activity is heating up with AI capabilities topping acquisition wish lists. Discover the full insights shaping media & entertainment in our 3rd annual Predictions Report: https://ow.ly/8wio50Y07t6

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Alternative Fund Managers are interested in the retail distribution of investment products. Traditional mutual fund/40 Act managers are interested in offering alternative investment strategies. These two movements are driving the democratization of making alternative investment products more broadly available to retail investors. On June 18th my partners Blake Estes and George M. Silfen will lead a discussion about launching an interval fund and, as a result, showcaseAlston & Bird's depth of practice in this area of Investment Funds. https://lnkd.in/gT9FahNV

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