Diligent Risk & Resilience Virtual Summit

, held on September 16, brought together industry experts to discuss the latest trends and strategies in risk management and resilience. One of the key speakers at the event was Michael Versace, Risk and Regulatory Markets Lead at Chartis Research. If you missed the live summit, you can still catch Michael's insightful session by watching the recording 

Q. Can you tell us about your background and what inspired you to focus on GRC and risk management?


A. With a career spanning multiple leadership roles in risk, including stints at PwC, the Federal Reserve Banks and as a two-term chairman for ISO technical committees on Information Security standards in Financial Service, I’ve developed an appreciation of what makes risk management most effective. With the risk universe expanding and becoming more interconnected than ever before, business leaders must recognize enterprise risk as a strategic investment that underpins growth and agility.

Q. What are the top macro and emerging risks that organizations should be preparing for?


A. To stay ahead of the curve, organizations need to focus on building a risk-aware culture from the top down. This means developing a tone from the c-suite that prioritizes risk management, embedding risk-thinking into every line of business and working across departments to create a unified, enterprise-wide capability that’s forward-thinking. By leveraging the latest innovations, including large and small language models, low-code platforms, blockchains and open-source development environments, organizations can optimize many risk management processes and deliver on a value contribution.

Q. What are the most critical skills or strategies that compliance and risk professionals need to develop in order to thrive in their roles today? 


A. Compliance and risk professionals need to have excellent communication and consensus-building skills, a deep understanding of the business and its landscape​ and a willingness to embrace technology. Strong communications and consensus-building skills are often overlooked, but in the end are at the heart of enterprise risk management. In addition, data and analytic skills have become much more critical, as industry leaders are guiding a broader adoption of metrics-based risk management, allowing enterprises, for example, to better understand risks within their business processes, systems and workforce. This trend signals a move toward more sophisticated, evidence-based GRC practices that are responsive to the complexities of today’s business environment.

Q. What advice would you give to risk leaders on navigating regulatory changes and ensuring their organizations remain compliant in a rapidly evolving environment?


A. Risk leaders are advised to stay vigilant and proactive. Both should be pursued with equal effort. This means using innovation to elevate awareness of potential shifts in regulatory temperatures, engaging with regulators and peers to stay informed and develop industry-level response and strategy​ and having a clear grasp of their compliance obligations and areas of over-compliance. By doing so, they can identify areas to streamline compliance processes, eliminate redundant tasks and continually test measures to ensure they’re operating as effectively as possible. Keep your business, products and services ahead of the regulatory curve.

Q. In your experience, what are some common pitfalls or challenges that organizations face when trying to integrate risk management into their overall business strategy, and how can they overcome these challenges?


A. Let’s face it, many organizations still treat risk management as a box-ticking exercise- a necessary cost of doing business. This approach is not only ineffective, but also a missed opportunity. To truly get the most out of risk management, organizations need to weave it into the fabric of their business strategy. This means investing in the right people and technology to support their risk management efforts. Make it attractive, desirable, specialized, and cool for the next generation of risk managers. Incentivize and reward ‌dedication to risk management practices. I guarantee that doing so will drive real sustained value.

Q. As someone who has analyzed various GRC programs, what are some best practices or lessons learned that you can share with risk leaders looking to enhance their 

A. As mentioned, best practices ultimately enhance business agility and establish resilience concurrently – one with the other. Best practice starts with a strong tone from the top and expertise across all risk domains, financial and non-financial. Doubling down on data and analytics modeling and visualization using common technical platforms and a strong culture across business line risk managers, compliance and audit that deliver an end-to-end ERM is also crucial best practices. Training and staff rotations among risk functions are also important to maintaining a high degree of knowledge and awareness.

Q. Looking ahead to the future of risk management, what trends or developments do you see shaping the field, and how can organizations prepare for these changes?


A. I’d come back to the top – this is not your father’s GRC – the industry has moved way beyond that as the risk universe expands and risk becomes more interconnected than effort before. Clear examples of this are the growth of digital assets as commodities, payment instruments, stores of value, distributed finance, growth in private credit, the deregulatory trends, new trade agreements and governance around AI and machine learning, to name a few, are going to reshape the landscape. In addition, and maybe just as important, we need to be ready for the next generation of risk managers with human and artificial intelligence combined. I believe organizations need to be more proactive, innovative and adaptable than ever, investing in the right technologies and expertise to address emerging risks. By doing so, they’ll not only be able to mitigate potential threats but also discover new opportunities for growth and success.

Diligent Q&A - Turning Risk into a Strategic Advantage with Insights from Michael Versace, Risk and Regulatory Markets Lead at Chartis Research

As technology and AI continue to evolve at a rapid pace, mission-driven organizations, from nonprofits to public sector bodies, are grappling with how best to harness these tools to serve their communities and advance their goals. In our latest expert-led series, we explore the shifting landscape of governance and service delivery through the lens of innovation.

We also explore a pressing dilemma facing today’s leaders: Are you using AI enough? Or are you using it in the wrong ways? These questions are no longer hypothetical; they’re at the heart of strategic conversations happening across boardrooms and leadership teams in the public and nonprofit sectors.

As AI becomes more embedded in decision-making, service design and operational efficiency, we asked experts to share their insights and tips on technology and AI and the future of governance for nonprofit and public-facing boards. Whether you serve on or with a city council, school board or mission-driven organization, you’ll find a new perspective to determine the next steps.

Experts on how technology and AI are shaping mission-driven governance

Patrick Downes, Managing Partner, Governance Ireland:

 “Build a governance culture that learns as fast as the world changes. That means embracing continuous board education, routinely reassessing structures and processes against their mission and embedding future-scanning into the agenda. Any technology, including AI, will only be as effective as a board’s willingness to ask better questions and act on uncomfortable answers. Future-proofing is less about predicting the exact challenges ahead, and more about creating a governance system resilient enough to adapt — anchored in your purpose, but agile in your methods. Easier said than done!” 

Darian Rodriguez Heyman, speaker, consultant and bestselling author, Helping People Help:

 “You are being irresponsible if you’re not giving AI a good look — or if you’re using it without thoughtfulness and intentionality. We’re not here to automate ourselves and outsource the work to the robots. We’re here to employ them to unlock efficiencies and serve more people in the community. Every organization should spend at least an hour or two starting the conversation about what AI means to them and put some policies on paper.” 

Jay Worona, Partner at Jaspan Schlesinger and Narendran, and former Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel, New York State School Boards Association:

 “If it’s going to help (board members) do their jobs, phenomenal. If it’s going to do their jobs for them, that’s really problematic.” 

 There are more than two approaches to AI adoption, and your team wants to land somewhere between “no holds barred” and dragging your feet. AI is already integrated into platforms like CRMs, fundraising tools and more, so it’s more than likely that your team, staff and other stakeholders are already using it. If you haven’t had a conversation about using AI for strategic work such as data analysis, potential administrative time savings and ethical and privacy implications, schedule that meeting now. 

2. Preserve and respect human contributions

Andrea Messina, CEO, Florida School Boards Association:

 “While AI will assist in streamlining workflows and so many other things, the human insight provided by members of public-facing boards will not and should not ever be replaced. Boards will actually be able to offload work that can be determined by algorithms and, in its place, focus on important discussions and collaborations with those whom they represent.” 

Steve Schroeder, Director of Administration & Analysis, Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, and former Board President and Governance Officer, Sun Prairie School Board:

 “While AI will change many facets of our lives, at the heart of governance are relationships. Relationships cannot be replaced by AI. Future-proofing governance relies on human interaction: trust, respect, vulnerability and accountability. Organizations, and especially their leaders, need to spend more time cultivating relationships. Leadership, relationships and governance are interconnected and they are at the heart of any organization's success.” 

 “We shouldn’t be doing anything in a school board role that would preclude the public from understanding in a transparent way how our decisions are brought about.” 

 As a tool, AI can improve efficiencies and make the board’s or council’s work more powerful through predictive analytics, but it doesn’t take the place of intuition, experience and human insight that people bring to these roles. As your team discusses integrating AI into your work, set aside time to articulate how humans will continue to contribute through relationship building, quality control and other factors that support AI use. 

3. Boards can shift from reactive to strategic work

 “The next decade will see AI move beyond being a back-office efficiency tool to becoming a potentially proactive ethical compass for nonprofit boards. The way things are headed, I sense that AI will not only analyze compliance and performance data in real time but also flag ethical dilemmas before they occur — surfacing unintended consequences of decisions and their impacts, potential mission drift risks and stakeholder sentiment shifts. In other words, AI may evolve into a ‘governance early-warning system’ that augments trustees’ ability to make values-aligned, timely decisions. This won’t replace our judgement — nor should it — but it should sharpen it, freeing boards to focus more on stewardship of mission rather than firefighting avoidable crises.” 

James Page, Chief Information Officer, New York State School Boards Association:

 “Advanced technology like AI can help school boards move from being reactive to becoming more strategic. Boards can look forward, predicting enrollment shifts, modeling financial impacts or even seeing early signs of equity gaps.” 

Nicolette Grams, Partner, Conscient Strategies:

 “Nonprofit boards today are navigating an interesting convergence: the disruption of AI and technology alongside economic instability reshaping traditional funding sources. In this environment, boards have an opportunity to lean into AI with a combination of disciplined risk management and creative strategy. In times of instability, the board’s guidance on responsible technology use can turn disruption into new ways of operating and lasting impact." 

 AI’s ability to dig deep into data and return useful insights is unparalleled. Teams should prioritize discussing the big questions that can help make their work focused. For city councils or schools, this may mean quick access to analytics on changing demographics, resident sentiment or relocation trends; for a mission-driven organization, it may be getting a data-driven view of fundraising trends in the years ahead. The strongest board or council is one that can spend more time on effective planning for their communities. 

4. AI will reduce administrative workload

James Page, CIO, New York State School Boards Association:

 “AI can take a lot of the administrative load off of boards, automating things like policy comparisons, agenda prep or digging through hundreds of pages of documents.” 

Amy Allen, Superintendent, Lebanon School District:

 “What used to take me half a day to build an agenda now takes minutes. It streamlined our processes 100 percent.” 

Dottie Schindlinger, Executive Director, Diligent Institute and Founding Team Member, BoardEffect:

 “Technology is critical because very rarely in a nonprofit or mission-driven organization do you have a full-time governance professional. In the vast majority of nonprofits or public sector organizations, the person who's managing board business is someone who's got six other full-time jobs already. So, technology like BoardEffect or Diligent Community can help replace part of their job, take away that extra time they are spending (that they never really had in the first place!). The built-in AI-supported features, templates and automated processes that can be used to save that precious time are also going to help the organization have better governance. As well as being a board engagement platform, it's also a platform for governance best practice as it actually can reinforce best practice and governance both at the staff level and the board level.” 

 Helping speed administrative tasks is one way AI has significant potential. Whether using built-in AI tools to build agenda and generate meeting minutes, create automated dashboards for board oversight, handle follow-ups with the board or council and more, administrators can use these technologies to reclaim their time for other work. 

5. AI will help board work — and change how work is done

Dr. Froswa’ Brooker-Drew, President, Soulstice Consultancy:

 “My prediction is that board governance is going to be called into question. As the landscape changes, boards will need to reexamine the way they work.” 

 “Boards need to embrace learning, stay focused on students and view AI not as a threat, but as a tool to advance equity, transparency and opportunity.” 

Ellen Glasgow, General Manager, Mission Driven Organizations, Diligent:

 “The next wave of board members are demanding or requiring some level of technology to make serving on the board more efficient.” 

 “Everyone is getting information in real time. It’s really nice because, before, I’d share the agenda in a Google Doc. Now they just have access to everything they need.” 

 “Nonprofit boards can be hampered by poor-quality and incomplete board papers. The effective deployment of AI tools has the potential to be transformative in how the information for the board is produced, presented and utilized by the board in assessing options, evaluating risks and making decisions. While these tools will greatly enhance the decision-making process, the duty of board members to act with reasonable care, skill and diligence remains.” 

 “Boards that talk more about risk tend to be more engaged. If you do a better job of understanding where the risk is, you also do a better job of understanding where the opportunity is.” 

 An effective board or council member is one who is going to be flexible in learning about and adopting these new technologies. From small workflow changes to larger strategic thinking, every aspect of the team’s work will shift as we discover how to use — and not use — AI to support the communities and missions. Build AI-related topics into every aspect of training for the team. 

6. Learn how organizations are already using AI and tech

 “AI can help with board member recruitment and selection. It can help create evaluation rubrics, orientation packets and even read interview transcripts to identify top candidates.” 

Ellen Glasgow, General Manager, Mission Driven Organizations, Diligent

: “These tools allow for centralized access to important information and help with knowledge transfer, with information being in a secure location in case of board member turnover. When new board members come in, they can immediately have access to historical information to set them up for success.”

 “The policy-tracking piece in Diligent Community is so good. You can see the history of these policies and what changes were made. It’s super helpful and transparent.” 

 Technology and AI are already solving problems for boards and councils, and that “a-ha!” moment for your team could come at any time. Start talking to your fellow organizations, networks and vendors about possibilities you have yet to unlock. 

Experts share their thoughts on board engagement

Experts tell us why technology matters for community transparency

Experts share their thoughts on ethics for the publicly elected board

Experts share their thoughts on board development

Experts share their thoughts on risk management for mission-driven boards

Using your board management software to support board governance and oversight

Your board management software can help speed and simplify the discussions and work around technology discovery, implementation and oversight. Its value as a centralized location for teamwork, with workflow tracking, simplified meeting management and a single source of truth for documents, makes it a must-have for both public and mission-driven leadership teams.

 into our board management solutions. For public sector governance, Diligent Community can provide a central point to share information and policy discussions on new technologies, including public transparency websites that ensure local governments maintain a dialogue with their communities. With AI-supported minutes that leverages the power of closed captions from livestreamed meetings to help with meeting minutes, clerks and administrators save time while ensuring accurate, compliant documentation. 

For nonprofit and volunteer boards, BoardEffect provides a central hub for managing board meetings, storing and organizing key documents, and collaborating on strategic plans that advance your mission. With built-in AI capabilities — like transforming lengthy board books into clear insights, finding answers across materials in seconds, and instantly creating meeting minutes — BoardEffect helps boards save time, stay focused and make smarter decisions. The result: smoother meetings, a more engaged board and stronger governance.

Diligent continues to invest in our technology and purpose-built AI to help our customers work more efficiently, effectively and meaningfully. 

 to find out how we can help your mission-driven organization today.

Experts on how technology and AI are shaping mission-driven governance 

This article originally appeared in our September 11, 2025 edition of the Diligent Minute Newsletter. For more insights like these, delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe

Governance leaders feel more confident about AI these days, if the findings from our latest 

We asked GCs their key areas of risk right now, and only 8% mentioned technological disruption. This calm was a little surprising to me, given the current frenzy to integrate AI and see results as soon as possible.

AI risk perceptions among governance leaders

recent episode of the Corporate Director Podcast

 particularly timely. We talked to Beena Ammanath, Global Head of the Deloitte AI Institute and a faculty member for Diligent’s AI Ethics and Board Oversight Program. Ammanath’s literally written the book — 

 — on navigating tech disruption, and I always find her take on things very thoughtful, nuanced and reassuring, as you’ll see in these expert tips for AI strategy and adoption. 

Sticking with our GC theme, the paralegals who support them have typically followed an established career path. Early on, they spend a lot of time looking up statutes and contracts and reviewing documents. The information they learn along the way equips them for more senior roles.

But now AI has automated the whole process, transforming the team’s workload and profession’s overall pipeline and career trajectory. It leaves paralegals understandably worried — especially when they hear promises that AI will take away the boring parts of their work and make their jobs easier.

“Leaders have a responsibility to go beyond the clichés,” Ammanath said. “What happens to the workday when organizations make the job easier? If AI is going to create new jobs, what are those roles?”

“I think leaders have a huge responsibility to proactively think about that,” Ammanath said, citing the need to create organizational structures for new career paths and provide both targeted upskilling and general AI training to build fluency across the workforce.

Then there’s the matter of the human/machine relationship. “How can leaders thrive and succeed in this era of AI where humans and machines are working so closely together?” Ammanath asked. “To work in the best possible way, where can we get the maximum benefit with the minimum side effects?”

We’ve all seen cautionary tales about students outsourcing the entirety of their coursework to ChatGPT. This should go without saying but: Don’t do that in your organization.

In the podcast, my cohost Meghan Day and I talked about studies of what people’s brain waves look like when they use AI at different levels. The heaviest AI use showed the lowest brain function — almost like people were asleep. More optimal EKG activity happened when AI users started a task with their brains and then added ChatGPT.

“Personally, I’ve been most successful embracing AI in my job in areas where I already know what good looks like,” Day said. “And AI is able to speed my work along.”

AI also promises big potential for board members. You can train different agents to have different personalities and perspectives so they can frame problems in new ways for you, for example. But you’ll still need to oversee them and evaluate their output with your own human expertise to ensure accuracy and nuance.

3. Make continuous education — and hands-on use — a cultural norm

Navigating AI’s risks and rewards requires knowledge of AI itself.

This doesn’t mean dropping everything to become an AI expert (although those nine-figure job offers make it tempting). It means having a basic understanding of core AI principles, like machine learning, deep learning and computer vision — and what these principles look like in action.

“As corporate directors, it's important to focus the time and energy to not only learn about AI, but start using AI tools in your job,” Ammanath said.

AI is changing the way we work and the way we lead. For practical strategies and insights from Beena Ammanath,

listen to the full conversation on the Corporate Director Podcast: AI leadership strategies for a changing world.

This article originally appeared in our August 28 edition of the Diligent Minute Newsletter. For more insights like these, delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe 

My colleague Josh Black, Vice President of Editorial at Diligent, doesn’t use words like “eventful” and “unconventional” lightly. So, when I saw them front and center in the editor’s forward of this year’s Proxy Season Review, which Diligent Market Intelligence prepares in association with Olshan Frome Wolosky and Campaign Management, I paid even more attention than usual.

“It is difficult to recall a more eventful or unconventional proxy season since the first year of the pandemic,” Black declared. 

Relentless market volatility is only part of it

. Activists have beena dopting new tactics and advancing stronger director candidates to achieve their desired objectives, especially in the U.S. “It feels very much like an inflection point,” Black added.

Proxy season 2025: Evolving shareholder engagement strategies

In this year’s review, his team examines this inflection point, connecting the dots between what we’ve seen in this year’s proxy season and what these trends mean for boards and advisors right now. Here are a few key takeaways, starting with shareholder engagement.

You’ve probably observed a noted decline in proactive communications by institutional investors lately. Regulatory developments, like revised guidance on Schedule 13D/G eligibility, are a big part of this.“ Norms have unmistakably evolved,” Campaign Management CEO and Founder Michael Fein pointed out in his analysis. “Institutional investors paused outreach, reassessed compliance exposure, and pulled back from dialogue just as several proxy campaigns were gathering momentum.”

Shareholders still care deeply about board structure, accountability, and transparency — critical contributors to strong corporate performance in uncertain times.

In the first half of the year, 33 governance-focused proposals passed with majority support. Board composition has been a common target, with director shuffles at Phillips 66 and Penn Entertainment far from isolated anomalies. We’ve also seen a significant increase in withhold campaigns for driving director changes and other demands.

2. Make real-time data and shareholder sentiment a board priority

Amid this perfect storm of new tactics, heightened scrutiny and radio silence from institutional investors, it’s harder than ever to anticipate vote dynamics and activist positioning.

Is a withhold campaign targeted pressure for governance enhancements, or a prelude to a full-blown proxy fight? Your company’s future depends on answering questions like these quickly and well. And this means moving beyond historical data, guesswork and ad hoc interpretation to real-time intelligence.

Now is the time to invest in systems and processes that deliver accurate, actionable data on investor sentiment, proxy trends, and governance benchmarks.

It’s time to look beyond business as usual for shareholder engagement as well. This means rethinking how your organization interacts with institutional investors. What new touchpoints can you leverage to fill in communication gaps? How can you proactively share your governance story — especially future-focused strategies and positive milestones — in a way that responds to current trends and sentiment?

Think about harnessing all of the data collected in the steps above, like 

 and proposal outcomes, to shape your narrative. “The 2025 proxy season made clear that activists will not sit on the sidelines waiting for more ideal economic conditions,” Andrew Freedman, Chair of Olshan Frome Wolosky’s Shareholder Activism Practice Group, warned in this year’s review. And here’s what he recommends: “Stay prepared to respond to well-crafted demands and sharp strategies, underscored by an unwavering focus on performance and accountability.”

Keep reading for more on the 2025 proxy season

Dive into our full analysis — AI, ESG, 2025’s wildest campaigns and much more — in the full report: The Proxy Season Review 2025.

Want regular access to original research in the field of GRC? Bookmark our 

 for the latest surveys, podcasts and reports.

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Diligent Q&A - Turning Risk into a Strategic Advantage with Insights from Michael Versace, Risk and Regulatory Markets Lead at Chartis Research

Experts on how technology and AI are shaping mission-driven governance

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