Industry leaders Nancy Twine and James D. White share invaluable insights to help you accelerate your career.
Both were featured as speakers at AFROTECH™’s Board Readiness Summit, which was held virtually from 10 a.m. ET to noon ET on March 25, 2025. The event offered keen insights on securing a board seat. Twine’s panel was moderated by Avary Bradford, founder and consultant at The Hive Consulting Co. White’s panel was moderated by Salah Goss, Mastercard’s head of social impact for North America at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.
Twine’s Panel Insights
Twine and White reflected on their paths to securing their first board positions. Twine, who currently serves on the boards of Room to Grow and Cosmetic Executive Women, spoke first, detailing her transition to Vera Bradley, where she served from June 2021 to June 2023, according to LinkedIn. This opportunity came nearly eight years after she founded Briogeo Hair Care—a clean, natural hair care brand designed for all hair types—which grew to $100 million in revenue before being acquired by Wella Company in 2022. Twine remained CEO of Briogeo until stepping down in 2025, notes WWD.
“I had done every role in my business, from marketing to sales, to finance, to operations, to people management. And it was actually during the pandemic, and I was doing a lot of soul searching, and I said, ‘I’m ready to start stretching a new muscle,'” Twine explained. “But when you’re a founder of a company, you can’t leave your company to go do something else. And so I was trying to figure out how could I continue running my company. Something that I loved but also create opportunities to build new skill sets and challenge myself in a new way. And I was talking to a dear friend sort of about my dilemma, and she’s been on some incredible boards, and she said, ‘You know what, Nancy, I think it’s time for you to start thinking about boards, and that’s what ultimately sort of inspired that that board transition.'”
Twine also shared advice for aspiring board members, noting the importance of thorough research on the company, its leadership, and the interview process.
“You need to have really done the homework. And I mean, you know everything from exploring the website, reading the videos, listening to podcasts from the CEO. They have a physical presence going in the stores, talking to the reps, and even bringing in some of those examples. …I think in terms of preparation, being able to go to those levels of depth within the conversations is really really key for having a successful interview,” she explained.
White’s Panel Insights
White brings extensive industry experience, including his role as SVP of Business Development for North America at The Gillette Company from 2002 to 2005. During this time, the CEO encouraged executives to serve on at least one board to broaden their perspectives. White selected Keane Inc., connecting to the board through a human capital firm where he had worked while serving as VP of the Customer Development Group at Nestlé Purina from 1987 to 2002.
“I wanted to learn more about this mysterious role in the board room that most of us haven’t had access to or experience. I didn’t have an uncle or a father who sat in the boardroom and could take me through the steps to get to that place. So, as I tried to build my own knowledge base, kind of leveraging the network I had access to, that put me on a path to really be prepared when the opportunity presented itself,” White detailed.
While White cites Keane Inc. as his first board, he also mentions he had already been preparing years earlier in his hometown of St. Louis, where he served on a nonprofit board, among others.
“I started probably 5 years prior to that kind of thinking about readying myself for board service. The path I took myself down was being excellent as a nonprofit board member…So, as that opportunity presented itself. It ended up being the right opportunity for me in that moment,” he recalled.
Today, White serves on several boards, including CAVA, Greenlight, Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP), The Simply Good Foods Co., and The Bay Club Co. He also chairs the boards at The Honest Co. and Directors Academy. One of his greatest lessons from serving on numerous boards is the importance of interviewing the boards he joins to ensure their values align with his own. In addition to sharing these insights, he offers valuable advice to listeners aspiring to follow a similar path.
“The advice I typically give people is, first, be excellent at your day job, whatever that day job is operating. Experience is really a critical component that’s gonna trump out or just having a superpower in some functional area that can be attractive to the board,” he said.
“In terms of the practical steps of creating kind of visibility. I talked about my own path. It was through the nonprofit work that I did in my hometown of Saint Louis. People sitting on those nonprofit boards are likely sitting on both public and private company boards and their leaders in the community, so I always encourage people to start kind of locally and then to work yourself into the mix of letting people in your network know that you have an interest in board service. But the people that know you best are the people that work with you sometimes in those you know, whether it’s the School Board or some philanthropic board that you sit on.”
