Board Advisory and Governance for Australian Boards
A board search fills a seat. Board advisory is the work around the table: how the board is performing, how it plans, how it handles conflict, and whether the next appointment — if there is one — is even the right move.
Tiger Boards is a boutique Australian board search and advisory firm, founded by Kylie Hammond LLM EntGov. Advisory sits beside search, not inside it. If you already know you need a Chair, Non-Executive Director, committee member or investor director, that brief belongs on board search. If you need a confidential conversation about the board itself, you are on the right page.
Who this is for
This work is for people who already have a board — or are about to formalise one — and need governance thinking, not a candidate list.
Chairs
Chairs who want a private sounding board before they take a performance issue, a succession question or a difficult director conversation into the next meeting. Many Chairs do this work alone. They do not have to.
Boards and company secretaries
Boards that can feel the meetings getting longer and the decisions getting thinner. Company secretaries and governance leads who need an external view of effectiveness, papers, committee load, or the way the board and management actually work together.
Owners, founders and investors
Private company owners, family businesses and investors who have outgrown informal decision-making. You may not be ready to appoint a full independent board. You may need an advisory board, a clearer charter, or an honest view of whether the current table can carry the next stage of the business.
If the brief is “find us a director”, that is search. If the brief is “help us work out what this board needs to do”, that is advisory.
What the advisory covers
There is no twelve-step product here, and no off-the-shelf review that pretends every Australian board has the same problem. Engagements start with the issue in front of you.
Board performance and effectiveness
How the board spends its time. Whether the skill mix matches the strategy. Whether debate is real or ritual. Whether the Chair and CEO relationship is carrying the organisation or quietly blocking it. This is a working conversation about how the board actually operates — not a scorecard for the annual report.
Planning and the quality of board debate
Strategy days that produce a slide pack and no decisions waste director time. Advisory here is about the questions the board should be asking, the information it needs before it asks them, and the difference between management’s plan and the board’s job.
Conflict and difficult conversations
Conflict on a board is not always a failure. Unmanaged conflict is. That includes director-to-director tension, a Chair–CEO fracture, a founder who will not step back, or a committee that has become a second board. The work is confidential, practical, and aimed at a decision. Boards often try to search their way out of a conflict that a new director will only inherit.
Succession thinking
Succession is often treated as a search problem. It is usually a governance problem first. Who is actually ready? What does the next Chair need that the current one has? Are you replacing a person or changing the shape of the board? Advisory can settle that before anyone writes a role brief.
Kylie Hammond has been involved in thousands of Chair, Non-Executive Director, committee and advisory appointments across Asia Pacific. That background keeps the advice commercial. The point is a board that can govern, not a governance theory.
How this differs from board search
Board search is the confidential identification and appointment of Chairpersons, Non-Executive Directors, committee members, investor directors and advisory board members.
Board advisory is the work you do when the question is not “who” — or not yet. It is governance, performance, planning, conflict and succession thinking. Search may follow. It should not be assumed, and it should not be bundled in so that every conversation ends with a shortlist.
Tiger Boards does both. They are scoped separately so you are not sold a search when you asked for a conversation about the board.
When to use advisory versus search
Use advisory when:
- the board is in place and something in the way it works is not
- you are formalising governance for the first time and need a structure before you appoint
- conflict, performance or a Chair–CEO issue should be handled before any new director arrives
- succession is on the table and you are not yet sure what role you are filling
- you want an advisory board rather than a statutory board, and need to define its job first
Use board search when:
- you have a defined vacancy — Chair, NED, committee, investor director or advisory board member
- the board has already agreed the capability it is missing
- confidentiality around a replacement is the main requirement
If you are unsure, start here. A short conversation with Kylie will tell you which side of the line you are on.
Frequently asked questions
Is board advisory the same as recruiting a director?
No. Advisory is about the board’s work: performance, planning, conflict, effectiveness and succession thinking. Recruitment is board search. Some clients use both, in that order. Many only need the first.
Do we need a full board review?
Not always. Some boards need a focused conversation on one issue — a Chair transition, a committee, a founder’s role, a strategy day. Others want a broader look at how the board is working. The scope is set with you, not from a template.
Who do you work with — the Chair, the whole board, or the owners?
Whoever holds the problem. Often that is the Chair. Sometimes it is the owners or a lead investor. Sometimes it is the board as a group. The conversation stays confidential and is led by Kylie Hammond.
Will this automatically become a board search?
Only if you decide it should. Advisory can conclude that the current board is the right one, that an advisory board is enough, or that a search is the next step. Search is a separate engagement.
Speak confidentially with Kylie Hammond
If you want a straight conversation about your board — not a pitch for a search you have not asked for — speak with Kylie Hammond, founder of Tiger Boards and Australia’s leading Board Search Selector.
Tiger Boards works with Australian boards from Sydney. The first conversation is confidential.