Nicole Reboe is the CEO of Rich Talent Group and brings more than 20 years of experience in executive recruiting and a passion for inclusion and impact which enables her to help clients build transformative leadership teams. She joined Rich Talent Group as President in 2022 and took on the role of CEO June 2024.
A dynamic search executive with a global perspective, Nicole has worked in both corporate talent acquisition functions and search firms, which has afforded her expertise in technology, communications, and the financial services sectors.
Previously, Nicole was a Partner at Brunswick Group, a global strategic communications advisory firm, where she led all Partner hiring in the US, across Corporate Communications and Public Affairs. In 2019, Nicole was appointed the firm’s first Global Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, with oversight of all firmwide actions to meaningfully advance and embed DE&I.
Nicole has also held positions at two global executive search firms, as a Consultant at Spencer Stuart and a Principal at Heidrick & Struggles. And she has worked within three Group Human Resources functions—at Barclays, Visa, and Brunswick Group. Throughout her career, she has led searches around the world, including in the US, India, Singapore, Kazakhstan, Russia, China, Germany, Indonesia, and France.
Nicole earned a BA from Dartmouth College and an Ed.M. in Counseling Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. She has lived and worked in the UK, US, and Asia. She now resides in New York with her husband and six-year-old son.
For senior leaders thinking about their next chapter, a board seat can feel like the ultimate career milestone. But according to Nicole, too many executives approach the process as though there is a checklist they simply need to complete: gain enough experience, rewrite the résumé, get board certified, and wait for the call.
The reality is considerably more nuanced.
Board searches are highly specific to the needs of the company at a particular moment. And while there are factors executives cannot control—market conditions, the composition of a particular search, or whether their experience happens to match what a board needs right now—there is plenty they can control. The opportunity is to focus less on chasing a board seat and more on building the reputation, narrative, experience, and relationships that make you a compelling candidate when the right opportunity appears.
Nicole's first piece of advice is to reconsider why you want to serve on a board in the first place.
Board service is not a trophy or a “brass ring” to collect at the end of an operating career. It is a demanding leadership role that requires real preparation, judgment, and commitment. Whether the board is public, private, advisory, or nonprofit, directors are expected to contribute meaningfully to the problems a company is trying to solve.
That means the first question is not simply, How do I get a board seat? It is What will board service actually add to my career, my perspective, and my impact as a leader?
The answer can also change the type of board you pursue. Nicole pushed back on the idea that public company boards are automatically the ultimate destination. Private companies and family offices can offer significant complexity and meaningful opportunities to exercise judgment and governance. The right board is ultimately the one that aligns with what you want to contribute and what you want to gain from the experience.
The shift is subtle but important: don't start with the board. Start with the value you want to create.
Once you understand why you want board service, the next step is being able to explain why a board should want you.
Nicole described this as developing a clear board thesis: Why me? Why now? Why this?
An impressive operating résumé alone does not make someone board-ready. Search firms and boards are looking for evidence that a candidate can recognize patterns, demonstrate progression through leadership, and bring experience that connects directly to the challenges the board is facing.
That requires getting specific about what you actually bring to the table.
Maybe you've led a major transformation. Maybe you've operated internationally. Maybe you've navigated a turnaround, scaled an organization, managed a large P&L, or led through a period of significant change. Increasingly, Nicole is also seeing AI experience appear prominently in board specifications, particularly when candidates can demonstrate that they have actually led through AI transformation rather than simply having knowledge of the technology.
The point is not to manufacture a board persona. It is to understand the experiences you already have and translate them into the problems a board might need someone to solve.
Nicole offered a useful way to think about it: What is it about your professional and lived experience that makes you uniquely equipped to unlock or solve a problem a board might be facing?
One of the most important—and least visible—parts of a board search is what happens before the candidate ever knows they are being considered.
Board searches involve significant back-channeling and reputation checks. Search firms may speak with existing directors and other trusted sources to understand how a candidate operates, sometimes before the candidate has even been approached about an opportunity. Boards want to know not only what you've accomplished, but how you accomplished it.
Are you collaborative? Do people trust you? Do you have a reputation for good judgment? How do you behave under pressure? Do colleagues want to work with you again?
For Nicole, this makes reputation management an essential part of board preparation—not something you think about once a search begins.
It also means the people around you matter.
Nicole shared the example of a woman who was recently placed on a public company board. The search firm appeared to discover her as a new candidate, but in reality, someone already sitting on the board had advocated for her and brought her name into the conversation.
That is the power of a network that knows what you are looking for and understands your value.
Getting on the radar for board opportunities requires visibility beyond your company.
Nicole recommends thinking deliberately about the ecosystem around you: directors, investors, executive search professionals, governance communities, mentors, and other people who have access to the conversations where board opportunities are discussed. She calls this a kind of stakeholder engagement map—a clear understanding of which relationships can influence the trajectory of your board career.
The important distinction is that this is not networking for networking's sake.
Your network should know what you are looking for.
Nicole encouraged executives not to be shy about saying, clearly and directly, “This is what I want.” That could mean asking someone for an introduction to a search professional, seeking feedback on where your experience would be most additive, or talking to someone already serving on a board about the kinds of opportunities they are seeing.
Ambition is not the problem. Ambition without clarity is.
For many executives, the biggest challenge is that their reputation is strongest inside their own organization.
That is not enough.
Nicole emphasized the importance of becoming known in the circles where board conversations actually happen. That can mean connecting directly with search professionals, using trusted relationships to make introductions, attending relevant events hosted by search firms, and identifying people whose values and networks align with your own.
It is also worth paying attention to how your operating career is represented publicly.
Nicole sees LinkedIn as a legitimate starting point. The question is simple: If a search professional read your LinkedIn profile today, would they understand why you might be board-ready?
That does not mean turning your profile into a board résumé. It means making sure the story your professional presence tells is consistent with the story you want decision-makers to understand.
A board bio can feel like another piece of professional housekeeping, but Nicole sees the process of writing one as more valuable than the document itself.
The exercise forces you to distill your career into something more fundamental: What are you known for?
Nicole referenced a question she likes: What are you famous for? In other words, what do people call you for? What problem do you repeatedly solve? What expertise, judgment, perspective, or experience do you bring that is difficult to replicate?
The finished bio matters because it can become currency within your network. A trusted connection may need something concise to send to a search professional or another board member on your behalf. But the deeper value is the thinking required to create it.
The same applies to LinkedIn.
Your résumé tells people what you have done. Your board narrative needs to make clear why what you've done matters in a governance context.
Nicole also challenged another common assumption: that executives need to become “board certified” before they can be taken seriously.
She does not look for board certification when evaluating candidates. That does not mean board-readiness programs have no value. They can provide education, exposure to experienced directors, and—perhaps most importantly—access to a network.
But the certificate itself is not the point.
Nicole recommends asking what the experience actually gives you: Who are you meeting? Who is teaching you? What relationships are you building? What perspective are you gaining? If the program delivers those things, it can be useful. But there is no magic credential that substitutes for the underlying experience and relationships.
The same thinking applies to nonprofit and advisory boards. They can be valuable experiences in their own right and give leaders exposure to board dynamics, but Nicole cautioned against viewing them as a guaranteed stepping stone to a public company seat.
Take the experience for what it is—not simply for what you hope it will eventually unlock.
The board landscape is not static. Nicole described the current market as a period of “reversion to form,” with public company boards often favoring candidates who have served as CEOs, senior operators, or financial leaders. She noted that 85% of Rich Talent Group's recent U.S. public company board seats went to people with backgrounds in those areas.
At the same time, boards are looking for specific capabilities tied to the challenges in front of them. AI is one of the clearest examples. Cybersecurity, transformation, financial leadership, restructuring, M&A, and other specialized operating experiences can become particularly valuable depending on the company's needs.
But technical expertise is only part of the equation.
Nicole emphasized that boards increasingly want people who are willing to do the work: read the materials, show up prepared, have a point of view, collaborate with management, and engage deeply with the business. They are also paying close attention to board culture and how candidates have behaved in their operating careers.
For leaders coming from functions such as marketing, communications, human resources, legal, or other traditionally less represented pathways, that does not mean there is no place at the table. Nicole's view is that the aperture can widen again—and that leaders should be prepared to clearly articulate the value those experiences bring.
There is another increasingly important piece of the board narrative: AI.
Nicole's point is not simply that executives should understand AI. They should understand their own relationship to AI transformation.
Every leader is participating in this transition, whether or not they work in an AI-focused function. The technology may be changing how they operate personally, how their team works, or how their company makes decisions and delivers products.
That means every executive should be able to tell a clear story about it: How is AI changing your work, your organization, and the way you lead?
For leaders in functions that may feel less obviously technical, this can actually be an opportunity. Nicole argued that as AI increases the value of knowledge and analytical capability, distinctly human skills—understanding people, reading a room, navigating different cultures, exercising judgment, and understanding human behavior—become increasingly valuable.
The challenge is to make those capabilities visible and specific rather than leaving them as vague references to “soft skills.”
Perhaps the most important takeaway from Nicole's session is also the simplest: you cannot control every factor in a board search.
A board may be looking for international experience. It may need a CFO. It may want someone who has led an AI transformation. Another candidate may have a relationship with someone on the board. Timing may simply not be right.
None of those things necessarily mean you are not capable of serving on a board.
Nicole urged executives not to internalize rejection as a judgment on their ability. Sometimes the fit simply isn't there in that particular moment.
What you can control is whether your story is clear. Whether your reputation is strong. Whether your network knows what you want. Whether you understand the value you bring. Whether your LinkedIn and board bio communicate that value. Whether you are building relationships with people who can advocate for you. And whether you are gaining experiences that deepen your judgment and make your operating career more dimensional.
That is the work to do now.
Because the board opportunity itself may not be within your control. Being ready when the right opportunity appears is.
And sometimes, as Nicole reminded the group, careers come together in ways we could never have predicted. Not having the opportunity today does not necessarily mean you are missing out. There are many ways to contribute through board service—and many ways a career can unfold that are impossible to see from where you are standing now.
