There was a time, not so long ago, when sitting on a corporate board was something you accepted as a quiet honour. A retirement crown. A few meetings a year, a sitting fee, a polite dinner, and a line on the LinkedIn page that read "Independent Director, ABC Limited." That world is gone. In 2026, board compensation is no longer a prestige conversation. It is a governance risk conversation. And the people running that conversation are not the directors themselves — they are th