Here is a strange little scene that is playing out inside boardrooms across the world right now. A board chair turns to the CEO and asks, very politely, who owns the AI strategy. The CEO smiles, nods, and says the right thing. The board feels reassured. The CEO walks back to their office, calls a meeting, and asks the same question to their own team. Four different executives raise their hands. One of them is the CIO. One is HR. One is the head of a business unit. One is sitt

Let me start with a question most boards have not yet asked themselves out loud. If an AI agent in your company places an order, signs off a refund, files a customs entry, or sends a quote to a client at 3 AM on a Sunday — and gets it wrong — who exactly is accountable on Monday morning? If you paused for a second there, you are not alone. That pause is the whole problem with agentic AI governance right now. Boards across India, the US, and Europe are sitting on a quiet shift

A new cohort of senior executives is stepping decisively into board-level governance and strategic leadership roles across India, the Middle East, and beyond. Their appointments, spanning independent directorships, vice chairmanships, executive directorships, and advisory mandates, reflect a sustained shift in how India's boardrooms are being constituted. Through its Director's Institute Data Bank and Board Search, World Development Corporation’s Directors' Institute – World

Nair’s appointment reflects rising demand for trained and experienced independent directors The appointment of Ajit Nair as an Independent Director at Nityas Gems and Jewellery Limited points to a wider pattern taking shape in Indian boardrooms — one where senior professionals with deep operational credentials are increasingly stepping into formal governance positions. The appointment was recognised by World Development Corporation’s Directors’ Institute – World Council of Di

Directors’ Institute – World Council of Directors is a World Development Corporation initiative and a premier global platform for board-level training, governance certification, and director development.

Something significant happened in January 2026 that most people outside of Wall Street barely noticed. JPMorgan Asset Management — one of the largest asset managers on the planet, with voting rights over thousands of publicly listed companies — quietly cut ties with its proxy advisory firms. No more ISS. No more Glass Lewis. Instead, it launched an internal AI tool called Proxy IQ, designed to analyse data from over 3,000 annual company meetings and generate voting recommenda

In the UAE, corporate governance has entered a new era. Governance frameworks have long been aligned to publicly listed, regulated entities (such as financials and international corporations). Family-run privately held organizations and businesses often took a more informal approach to governance. However, this is changing quickly due to heightened regulation, global investor demand, and increased visibility into the markets will push UAE private companies to Institute strong

Introduction The AI Race Has a Leadership Problem Nobody Is Talking About The meeting had been going for forty minutes. The CEO was asking a simple question — "What does our AI strategy actually look like across the business?" — and the room had gone quiet in that particular way rooms go quiet when nobody wants to be the first to admit they don't have a clean answer. The CTO spoke about infrastructure. The CDO spoke about data pipelines. The head of digital spoke about three

(Pic: Dr Heval Mehta giving a welcome note) Dubai, UAE – 13 February 2026 – At a time when boardrooms across the Gulf are undergoing their most significant governance overhaul in a generation, a room full of Dubai's senior business leaders gathered for an unusual proposition: not to learn how to lead, but to find out if they are ready to govern. What is a Board Readiness Seminar, and why does it matter in the GCC? A Board Readiness Seminar is a structured governance assessme