Corporate governance rarely makes headlines when it works; however, when it fails, the consequences can be catastrophic. In this episode, Byron Loflin, Global Head of Board Advisory at Nasdaq and founder of the Center for Board Excellence (CBE), joins Pranay Agrawal, CEO of Fractal, to unpack how boards can build resilience, trust, and long-term value in an era defined by AI, disruption, shareholder activism, and regulation.
From the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis to today’s generative and agentic AI landscape, they explore why governance, culture, and AI literacy are now inseparable, and what distinguishes boards that learn faster and adapt from those that drift.
Spearkers info
Byron Loflin is Global Head of Board Advisory at Nasdaq, where he leads board assessments and boardroom training for Nasdaq Governance Solutions. He is the founder and former CEO of the Center for Board Excellence (CBE) – acquired by Nasdaq in 2019 – and is architect of CBE’s unique board assessment and advisory platform. Byron is recognized in the governance community for developing unique products that address board dynamics, corporate culture, accountability and performance. His experience and expertise are in the design and administration of assessments and advising board chairs, boards, committees, directors and executive management in a full range of corporate governance matters including strategic alignment, best practices, board refreshment, diversity, structures and corporate planning. He and his team have performed several hundred third-party board, committee, peer and CEO self-assessments for organizations of all structures and sizes. Byron is a graduate of Harvard Business School (OPM) and James Madison University (BA). He is a member of the Society for Corporate Governance, Institute of Directors (UK), and the National Association of Corporate Directors. Some of his recent published works include: “Love Your Neighbor,” International Banker Spring 2019, “Guide to Board Assessments,” Corporate Board Member June 2019, “Reboot, Not Refresh,” International Banker Spring 2018; “Board Evaluations: Getting Aligned,” published by Nasdaq 2017, and “Six Reasons Digital D&O Questionnaires Streamline Proxy Disclosure,” published by Nasdaq 2017.
Pranay Agrawal is the Non - Executive Director of our Company. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of our Material Subsidiary, Fractal USA. He is responsible for, among others, strengthening client partnerships, delivering overall revenue growth and increasing the visibility and scalability of Fractal. He holds a bachelor’s of commerce degree from Bangalore University and a post-graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He received the Young Alumni Achievers Award in the field of entrepreneurship from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in Fiscal 2019. He has over 25 years of experience in the technology sector. He is one of the founders of our Company and has been associated with our Company since its incorporation.
