Why Most Executives Never Make It to the Boardroom (And How to Break In) | Nick Button-Brown
April 16, 2026
How do you actually land your first board seat? In this episode of Mission One: The Executive Edge, Gerard Miles and Dan Hampton are joined by Nick Button-Brown, Chair of the UK Video Games Council, to detail the path from executive to board director.
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If you’re building your leadership team or considering your next move to the C-suite, connect with Gerard Miles or Dan Hampton on LinkedIn, or visit missionone.io/contact-us.
How do you actually land your first board seat? In this episode of Mission One: The Executive Edge, Gerard Miles and Dan Hampton are joined by Nick Button-Brown, Chair of the UK Video Games Council, to detail the path from executive to board director.
What You’ll Learn
What You’ll Learn
- Why your first board seat is brutally hard and how to get it anyway
- The mental shift from executive decision-maker to strategic advisor
- How to match your skills to company needs at the right time
- The compensation spectrum from startup equity to six-figure director fees
- How to build a portfolio that maximizes impact without burning out
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FAQs
Q: How do I actually get my first board seat when no one will give a first-timer a chance?
A: Start with a charity trusteeship. School boards and small charities are always looking for volunteers, and the governance experience maps directly onto company director work. The first seat is the hardest. By the fifth, it becomes almost routine.
Q: What's the real difference between being an executive and being a board member?
A: Control. As an executive, you can fix things yourself. As a board member, you can only advise. Sometimes the founder will ignore you entirely, and you have to be okay with that.
Q: How much do board members actually get paid?
A: At startups, usually just a small equity stake. At PE-backed companies, non-executive director fees typically run $25K-$75K per year for roughly half a day to a day per month.
Q: What makes someone a genuinely good early-stage board member?
A: The best ones don’t hand founders answers. They share their own wrong answers and help founders learn to decide for themselves. If you’ve made yourself redundant in five years, you’ve done the job well.
Q: How much time does a board role actually take, and can I do it alongside a full-time job?
A: Plan for roughly half a day to a day per month for a formal non-executive role, and less for a charity trusteeship, which is exactly why trustee work is the easiest way to start while still employed full-time.
Episode Resources:
- Nick Button-Brown on LinkedIn
- UK Video Games Council Website
- The Games Angels Website
- Gerard Miles on LinkedIn
- Dan Hampton on LinkedIn
- Mission One: The Executive Edge on Apple Podcasts
- Mission One: The Executive Edge on Spotify
- Mission One: The Executive Edge on YouTube
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