- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
In celebration of International Women’s Day this past weekend, we were delighted to host a very special and timely edition of Serica Storytellers: Leading with Impact, celebrating Asian American voices in the boardroom. We were honored to be joined by Jane Li, Public Company Board Chair at Semtech, and Judy Lee, Cofounder of Dragonfly & Public Company Board Director, for a candid conversation on their robust executive and governance experience, as well as their acute insights on board leadership, boardroom dynamics, and rapidly developing global trends and events.
The discussion, moderated by Public Company Board & Serica Board Member Lisa Lim, focused on 3 topics: (1) The Board Journey, (2) Board Leadership, (3) Current Geopolitical Events and Board Readiness.
1. The Board Journey
First, Judy shared how she began her board journey 14 years ago, starting on the board of her undergraduate alma mater, NYU Stern School of Business. Later, while serving as an executive director for the Royal Dutch Shell Group in Japan, she joined the board, an experience of many firsts — including being the first woman board director within the Royal Dutch Shell Group’s companies in Japan. Then, in 2016, she joined the Women on Boards program at Harvard Business School.
“It was the first time that I sat in a room with 65 amazing C-suite women from 30 different countries. … Having that diversity was very validating, and I loved it. And since 2016, I have served on 8 corporate boards.”
With that experience, Judy shared some advice for aspiring board directors: the importance of a mindset shift. With more and more opportunities for executives to serve on boards, executives who are able to understand the shareholder perspective early on in their careers benefit from a value-added leadership perspective. In addition, she advised board directors to fully understand their roles and boardrooms, to see where they can lend their business judgement. By knowing their way around the boardroom (e.g. the committees, the charters, the language), preparing from their domain expertise, and striving to understand the many diverse perspectives in a boardroom, board members can identify the critical points at which they can add the most value.
Next, Jane also shared how she grew into her board journey — not from a systematic plan, but from a consistent passion to grow technology companies. Having run many different technology operations, and by consistently thinking about how technology companies grow, scale, and renovate themselves, she had prepared herself to be a board candidate that can comprehensively think through every aspect of the business.
“Having a very different career path has provided me with a unique voice in the boardroom, and I am able to look beyond just [the semiconductor industry] and really think about where the market is going, and help ask the right questions, and help management to really think beyond their peer group.”
From her own experience with her personal board journey, Jane added, “doing what you’re passionate about is the best way to have a successful career.”
2. Board Leadership
Jane, who serves as the Chair of the Board at Semtech, shared her perspective on the 4 important responsibilities of a Board Chair and their importance:
Setting the board agenda: thus creating transparent dialogue among independent board directors to coordinate with the CEO and management team.
Managing the CEO relationship: boards often struggle when the Chair of the Board and CEO don’t have a good relationship, so managing that relationship is key to promote dialogue and mutual understanding.
Overseeing board culture: boards have different cultures for a variety of reasons, but understanding and stewarding board culture is important to promote open dialogue, expression of different opinions, and inclusion of all board directors.
Anticipating how to prepare for a crisis: Board Chairs should help prepare the board and management team to anticipate scenarios of crisis and be systematically prepared to address these situations when they arise.
On her last point, Jane shared her experience with two activist shareholder campaigns in her public board journey. Her biggest learning was that it is good for boards to be their own activists — to challenge their own thinking and reflect on strategic gray areas and how to confront them, and thus they will be better prepared for when activist situations arise.
Judy affirmed Jane’s takeaways, highlighting how in crisis situations, the line between governance and management is more fluid as there is a need for more intervention. Preparing for these situations involve relevancy: staying engaged with current topics and events, and also by broadening your perspective to engage the various stakeholders and people involved in your industry. Judy also emphasized that the dynamic conversations that are necessary in governance often involve a need to release the ego. For example, admitting that you don’t know the full scope of a situation, and asking questions that consider alternative viewpoints. Ultimately, though it can be challenging to speak against the tide, cognitive diversity and fresh perspectives are important for full consideration of a situation and to prevent being blindsided by crises.
3. Current Events & Trends
After sharing their insights from their decades of experience in the boardroom, the speakers next spoke to the future: the events and trends that are impacting industries across the world, and how board members can evaluate, organize, and prepare around these transformations.
The speakers led with the topic on the forefront of everyone’s mind: AI. Jane, being based in Silicon Valley and with many years of experience on the board of technology companies, acknowledged that many companies are still underestimating AI, and are not thinking enough about its impact. She emphasized that AI will cause disruptions in all businesses, even those that are more hardware or service oriented. Ultimately, board education is key, and boards can play a key role in ensuring that their company is not left behind by the AI transformation, and instead has thoroughly assessed the risks, benefits, and opportunities that AI offers.
Judy echoed these thoughts, highlighting that the issue with AI risk management is that as it develops and transforms so quickly, there is a need for readiness throughout the company (in technology, culture, and people capability). In addition, as this is enterprise and institutionalization of AI use, boards need to understand AI with a risk and compliance approach. Importantly, she added that AI, like any other situation, requires relevancy, broad perspectives, and full understanding and preparedness. As the use of AI for a company depends on its application and use case, companies need to understand exactly how AI applies to them — which can be done through research, engaging with relevant stakeholders, and balancing a framework of innovation and resilience.
“We are in a globalized world … Your competitive space is impacted by what’s happening in the rest of the world. You are not immunized from any volatility happening in the marketplace.”-
Thank you to the incredibly inspiring Jane Li and Judy Lee for joining us to candidly discuss their journey as AAPI board leaders, and to provide their insights on evolving global trends and advice for the next generation of AAPI leaders! We are also incredibly grateful for Lisa Lim for her thoughtful moderation of the webinar!
You can view the full webinar on our Youtube at this link here. Learn more below about opportunities for young AAPI leaders at our Rising Stars Award & AAPI Women’s Leadership Mentorship Program!
Rising Stars Award (nomination deadline March 27): www.sericainitiative.org/post/nominate-a-rising-star
AAPI Women’s Leadership Mentorship Program (application deadline March 22): www.sericainitiative.org/aapi-mentorship-program-2026
