As boards race to embed AI expertise, Insight Partners expands its program to help CIOs build their portfolio career strategy and network while still operating

NEW YORK, Oct. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Insight Partners, a leading AI and software investor, today announced Empower, a program that helps Global 2000 CIOs plan and prepare for board seats, startup advisory positions and other portfolio-career paths while they are still in their operating roles. Empower launches with 10 delivery partners, including Diligent, Heidrick & Struggles, Riviera Partners and Global Mentors Group, and has already enrolled more than 50 CIOs over a twelve-month pilot.

As AI adoption accelerates across the enterprise, boards are short on the expertise to oversee it and guide their companies through the change. In Diligent Institute’s 2026 What Directors Think survey of 200+ U.S. public-company directors, only 8% reported strong AI expertise on their boards, the lowest of any skill area surveyed, while 28% said AI expertise is what they want in their next director appointment. Similarly, founders building enterprise software are having to make high-stakes decisions at an increasing pace and need advisors who have led technology transformation at scale. Sitting CIOs are among the best-qualified people to fill both seats, and Empower helps them navigate that shift with clarity and rigor.

“Strong board and advisory opportunities often come through people who know your experience, understand the perspective you can bring to the boardroom, and are willing to open the right doors. Building the right strategy and relationships can take years, which is why CIOs should start long before they need them. Empower gives them the structure and the network to do it.” 
— Emmet B. Keeffe III, Managing Director, Insight Partners

WHAT’S KEEPING CIOs OUT OF THE BOARDROOM

Boards have historically been composed to address the defining questions of their era. For decades, those questions were financial. Today they are technological. AI business transformation, AI oversight, cybersecurity governance, and infrastructure investment are now board-level decisions with public-market consequences. CIOs have led some of the largest capital and transformation programs in the enterprise, and they are accountable for the systems that now define competitive advantage. Boards have traditionally recruited executives who have run a business unit and its profit and loss, a seat CIOs rarely hold, and thus their expertise remains largely underrepresented in the boardroom.

“CIOs have not traditionally been front of mind in board searches, but that is changing. Private company boards have long valued operators who combine technical expertise with firsthand experience of leading businesses through transformation. We are now seeing that recognition grow on public company boards as well. As AI, cybersecurity, and technology investment become central to board decisions, the experience CIOs bring is increasingly relevant to the full governance agenda.”
— Josh Narva, Partner – Talent Advisory, Riviera Partners

For 30 years, Insight has invested in relationships with founders building enterprise software and the operators inside some of the world’s largest companies. Today, that spans 550+ active investments and 470+ enterprise partnerships covering 3,400+ senior technology leaders. Executive relationships are treated as career-long partnerships, and that is the foundation of Insight Partners for Enterprise.

Insight Partners also works closely with CIOs through its CIO Council and programs that support their leadership teams in technology discovery and sourcing. Empower helps those same CIOs bring their expertise to boards and advisory roles, by helping them navigate three critical gaps:

• The Perception Gap. Many CIOs don’t consider a board or advisory path until late in their careers, and many haven’t built the visibility, relationships or positioning to turn operating credibility into advisory demand. In an Insight assessment of CIOs in the Empower community, 90% had no written transition plan and only 27% felt well prepared for a board role, though most say their employers would permit outside board service.
• The Preparation Gap. The paths from the CEO or CFO seat to the boardroom are well worn, with search practices, placement programs and sponsoring directors built for them. CIOs have no equivalent: no curriculum that translates running enterprise technology into governing it, from fiduciary duty and audit and risk committee work to AI oversight, and no playbook for advising a 50-person company.
• The Network Gap. Nearly 70% of directors say their board used personal networking or word of mouth to identify the candidate pool for its most recent director, according to the National Association of Corporate Directors. Advisory roles work the same way. A portfolio career network is a fundamentally different network from the one the operating role builds. Vendor contacts, industry peers, and internal stakeholders rarely translate. Board and advisory relationships are built in different rooms, and it can take years to develop the kind of trust that makes them valuable.

“I had spent a decade leading digital transformation at the world’s largest companies, yet when I stepped away from operating, I realized I had not planned sufficiently for what came next. I was reacting to the opportunities in front of me instead of having a structured path into boards, non-profit and advisory roles. A program like Empower would have been incredibly valuable in helping me define and plan the portfolio career I wanted which positioned my experience differently… all while I was still in my operating role.”
— Karenann Terrell, Board Member, Eaton, UiPath and Fractal; former Chief Digital and Technology Officer, GSK

EMPOWER CLOSES THE GAP

Empower is designed to run alongside the operating role. An intake process maps each member’s ambitions against the full range of what a portfolio career can look like, from public boards and advisory engagements to private directorships and consulting practices, or some combination of all of them.

From there, the program offers a curated path specific to those goals, drawing on education, positioning, and network as each member’s path requires.

“As an early member of the Empower community, attending a portfolio career design and preparation retreat gave me the space to intentionally think through what I wanted my next chapter to look like. Working closely with the Empower team helped me understand the different paths available, what a portfolio career could realistically look like, and how to start preparing for it. Through conversations with peers who had already made the transition, I moved from simply thinking about it to taking concrete steps forward. Most importantly, I realized I could make the shift into a full-time portfolio career much earlier than I had expected. It has been an incredible journey so far.”
— Cindy Hoots, Board Member, Zoom and McCormick; former CDIO, AstraZeneca

Each area is delivered alongside partners that have been selected, vetted, and onboarded to meet CIO-specific needs. Empower’s anchor partner, Diligent, helps participants build boardroom readiness through certification programs and opportunities to connect with experienced board members. As a leader in AI governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions serving more than 700,000 board members, Diligent brings the board and technology communities together to help prepare more technology leaders for board service and strengthen dialogue on AI oversight, governance, and business transformation.

Diligent is joined by 9 additional partners that extend Empower’s reach across board readiness, advisory work, consulting, coaching, network development, personal brand management and portfolio-career preparation. Additional partners include Global Mentors Group, Heidrick & Struggles, Major Futures, Moelam, NYSE, Ren, Riviera Partners, T200 and Ulu Ventures.

“Technology has been on the board agenda for years, but AI is changing the scale and pace of the transformation directors must oversee. Boards benefit from leaders who have guided transformation firsthand and can connect AI ambition to measurable business value while ensuring it is deployed responsibly. We’re thrilled to collaborate with Insight Partners to bring senior technology leaders and the board community together, in turn strengthening the boardroom’s ability to oversee AI transformation.”
— Brian Stafford, CEO, Diligent

RELATIONSHIPS THAT COMPOUND

For CIOs, serving on a board or advising founders offers an outside view of how other companies approach governance and AI transformation, and sharpens their work in the operating role today.

“Insight’s CIO Council has been incredibly valuable in helping me stay close to what my peers are doing and what is coming around the corner from an innovation perspective. At the same time, what sets the community apart is its focus on long-range leadership. Empower teaches a smart, disciplined principle: the best time to think about a future portfolio career is a decade in advance. This brings clarity and intentionality to long-term career planning while keeping the focus squarely on operational impact today.”
— Seth Cohen, 3X CIO (Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and Reckitt Benckiser)

For Insight’s portfolio of 550+ companies, Empower widens the pool of enterprise CIOs who can pressure-test products, serve as design partners and open doors to their peers. For Insight, it deepens career-long relationships with the operators who are responsible for enterprise technology decisions and offers a clearer view of what enterprises are adopting.

“We believe CIOs are leading one of the most complex business transformations of our time, and that experience has value far beyond their operating roles. What is often missing is the preparation, positioning and relationships to translate that leadership experience into board and advisory opportunities. As AI redefines what boards and founders need, Empower brings together the people and partners to help CIOs build that foundation while still operating and shape a portfolio career around where they can make a meaningful contribution.”
— Alberto Padilla Rivera, EVP, Insight Partners 

AVAILABILITY

Empower is open to in-role Global 2000 CIOs via nomination.

Learn more at insightpartners.com/insight-partners-for-enterprise/empower-program.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of December 31, 2025, the firm has over $90B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 900 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has a global presence with leadership in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with tailored, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on X @insightpartners.

About the Data

Data in this report is drawn from the Empower Assessment, an online intake questionnaire completed by 60 pilot members of Insight Partners’ Empower program between September 2025 and May 2026. Responses are self-reported and have not been independently verified. Results reflect this cohort only and should not be taken as representative of all CIOs.

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SOURCE Insight Partners