The year began with high intensity, carrying over many of the tensions that marked 2025: geopolitical instability, polarization and trade pressures. This scenario has created a climate of uncertainty for companies, which also face new demands, such as adapting to more complex regulations, the advancement of artificial intelligence and growing expectations regarding transparency and sustainability.
In this context, corporate governance plays a crucial role in navigating an increasingly complex environment and generating sustainable value. This capacity is put to the test during proxy season, when investors intensify their scrutiny and assess whether the board effectively oversees strategy, appropriately manages risks and fosters a culture of integrity in the process of achieving its financial objectives.
This rubric ultimately defines market confidence in the board’s ability to guide the company. Looking ahead to 2026, corporate governance models that will set the standard are most likely to be those that drive clear progress in these five areas:
1. Diversity Of Perspectives For Effective Decision-Making
Investors have moved beyond viewing diversity as a mere reputational indicator and now consider it a strategic competency of the board of directors. Boards that add value are distinct in that they combine diverse and complementary profiles, which enrich discussions and enable better decision-making.
Diversity, understood not only in terms of gender but also as the right mix of skills, backgrounds and experiences, is a key indicator of board quality and its ability to monitor risks and anticipate strategic impacts. Therefore, it’s an aspect that investors closely examine during proxy season, with particular attention to board composition, the skills matrix and the disclosed nomination criteria—key elements in their governance assessments and voting decisions.
2. Boards That Anticipate Risks
Anticipating emerging risks and clearly defining risk appetite and tolerance have become essential for effective corporate governance. In a region where compliance is still predominantly seen as a one-and-done checklist, the true differentiator will be deciding how far to go when taking on uncertainty to seize opportunities, balancing innovation and control, and avoiding both paralysis and excessive risk that compromises sustainability.
Recent experience shows that boards that consider risk scenarios, cybersecurity, digital disruption, geopolitics or regulatory changes make more timely decisions and better prepare their organizations for external shocks.
Effective risk management requires quality information, interdepartmental coordination and robust internal controls. But above all, it requires a culture that identifies threats, strengthens incentives and enables timely decision-making. This capability will be especially relevant in the upcoming proxy season, where a clear and coherent narrative in terms to risk oversight and strategic execution will be key to dealing with voting pressures and activism.
3. Technology As A Driver And Strategic Challenge
Technology has ceased to be merely an operational opportunity and has become a central factor in board strategy and oversight. Today, it redefines business models and accelerates competition, making its adoption and monitoring no longer optional for boards.
Therefore, board members must possess the technical skills to understand the impact of emerging technologies on the business, integrate them into strategic discussions and anticipate their risks and opportunities. Failure to do so means wagering obsoletion, making decisions based on incomplete information and missing strategic opportunities in rapidly transforming industries.
The credibility of technological oversight is at stake during proxy season; investors seek clarity on the structure that supports such credibility, the expertise behind it and how this translates into strategic decisions and risk management.
4. Culture Of Learning, Adaptability And Transformation
Boards of directors that stand out not only incorporate diverse talent, but also create a culture that fosters curiosity, continuous learning and adaptability. Today, the board’s role is expected to include questioning assumptions, exploring multiple scenarios and agilely adjusting course in the face of disruptive changes.
It will be necessary to transcend rigid corporate governance models focused solely on meeting the minimum requirements. Boards must evolve toward more dynamic models that prioritize strategic dialogue, regular performance evaluations and continuous learning through training programs. Diversity and the ability to update knowledge and adjust course quickly will allow boards to combine experience with openness to change, anticipate risks and transform uncertainty into a competitive advantage.
5. Geopolitics And Supply Chain Resilience
Increasing geopolitical volatility and changes in trade and regulatory policies have made supply chain resilience a top priority for boards of directors. The World Economic Forum’s 2026 Global Risks Report warns that geopolitical and geoeconomic confrontation has become one of the main global risks, with direct effects on trade and value chains, in a scenario where alliances are being reconfigured, protectionism is advancing and governments are exerting increasing influence over critical supply chains.
In this context, the ability to anticipate disruptions and diversify and redesign supply chains has become a strategic board-level decision, key to protecting operational continuity and long-term value creation.
Conclusion
In an environment marked by increasing risks, rapid technological advancements and expectations of stricter oversight, corporate governance needs to evolve to sustain value creation. Boards that successfully integrate strategic diversity, rigorous risk oversight, technological credibility, adaptability and geopolitical resilience will likely be better positioned to guide their organizations.
During proxy season, this leadership must be clearly reflected in the proxy statement—not only in what the company declares, but also in the concrete evidence of how the board oversees, makes decisions and adapts. Companies that can demonstrate this governance maturity are more likely to gain access to better capital, attract talent and develop a sustainable competitive advantage.
By Susana Sierra
Published in Forbes Business Council
