BETSY ATKINS Authors Behind Boardroom Doors: Lessons of a Corporate Director

• 10 Dec 2018

Betsy Atkins, former CEO and experienced corporate director has candid and very practical advice for
those who serve on the boards of big, complex enterprises in her new book, Behind Boardroom Doors:
Lessons of a Corporate Director. is collection of her writing on boards includes the now-legendary “My 16
Days on the HealthSouth Board,” with the details of her brief, turbulent stint as a director of a company
facing (but not facing up to) massive criminal fraud charges. She discusses problems from an executive
trying to bribe a world leader to a marketing VP’s porn site, traditional concerns of strategy, CEO
compensation and succession, shareholder lawsuits, and up-to-the-minute issues of ESG and social media.

“Betsy Atkins is the consummate board member and her breath of experience, and knowledge of corporate
governance, is unparalleled,” said Bank of America Director Lionel Nowell. “Behind Boardroom Doors is
saturated with real-life examples of good, and bad, corporate governance, and I would highly recommend
Betsy’s book as required reading for anyone seeking to gain insights and perspectives on how to better
represent shareholders, and provide exemplary board oversight.”

Institutional Shareholder Services Founder Robert A.G. Monks concurs, “ is book is a treasure. e ultimate
mystery for students, regulators, consultants, lawyers, economists – and even putative and serving members
– is what goes on in the Board of Directors. Those who try to rate boards are stymied because all they have
access to is public information. Betsy Atkins’ book is what we all have been looking for. It is a compilation
of perspectives from the inside by a really engaging narrator and professional director. I have never had
such a good insight into what directors ought to do … and the great value they can impart to an enterprise.”