Building a Solid Board-CEO Partnership: A Practical Guidebook for Transit Board Members, CEOs, and CEO-Aspirants

by Doug Eadie, David Stackrow

In their new book, coauthors Doug Eadie and David Stackrow offer practical, detailed guidance for building the kind of close and productive transit board-CEO partnership that will stand the test of these challenging times. Without a high-functioning Strategic Governing Team at the top, the authors contend, public transit authorities fail to realize their tremendous potential to improve the quality of life in their communities. The polar opposite of a theoretical, abstract treatise on public leadership, this compact but richly detailed volume draws on the authors’ fifty-plus years of real-world experience in the transit sector. You’ll find it to be a deep reservoir of practical, tested guidance you can put to immediate use in transforming your board into a higher-impact governing body that makes a tremendous difference in the affairs of your authority. The authors reject the traditional arm’s-length, “we-they” approach to the board-CEO partnership—a passive-reactive model that they describe as a recipe for governing futility. In its place they argue for making transit governing a truly “team sport,” appealing to the new breed of board member who expects to be actively engaged in shaping—not just making—strategic governing decisions. In remarkably useful detail—including real-world cases—the authors cover such topics as If you’re a transit authority board member, CEO or CEO-aspirant, or an elected official who appoints transit board members, you’ll want to keep this volume close at hand, referring to it frequently in carrying out your leadership mission.

170 pages, Paperback

Published April 10, 2019

About the author

After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois, I spent three years as a Peace Corps teacher in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Upon my return to the US, I earned as masters in management from Case Western Reserve University. I spent the next ten years working as a nonprofit and public executive. Since the mid 1980s, I have been on my own - consulting, writing and speaking (http://www.dougeadie.com). Three years ago, I established my own publishing company Governance Edge), which has brought out my last three books. My most recent book, "The Blind Visionary," (http://www.theblindvisionary.com) tells the amazing true story of my co-author, Virginia Jacko. Virginia lost her eyesight while working as an executive at Purdue University. She started all over as a vocational rehabilitation student at the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, and only four years later she became president and CEO of the Miami Lighthouse. In "The Blind Visionary," Virginia and I tell her story and offer four lessons from her experience that readers can put to work in building fuller, more satisfying lives and careers.