Throughout my life, I’ve been blessed to serve on boards fitting my interests. As a youngster, it was the church youth board and then philanthropic and fraternity boards during college. Early in my career, I was asked by Lansing Mayor Nicholoff to fill his spot on the Tri-County Meals on Wheels board. Late in my 20’s I began helping the Michigan Political Leadership Program and continue enjoying doing so today. After leaving state government I was appointed to the Michigan Film Commission.

I was honored to serve and fulfill my responsibilities on each board.  However, it wasn’t until more recently that my life experience brought a better understanding of the importance of how a board’s goals, structure, and responsibility drives outcomes.

In 2011, my running partner, Jeb Burns, CIO of the Municipal Employees Retirement System of Michigan, and I were out on a run and discussed the importance of strengthening ties between the Netherlands and West Michigan. We recognized that there were a lot of similarities between these two places of the world. I’ve always wanted to tap into my heritage as a first gen Dutch American and Jeb really recognized the symbiotic energies with the people and institutions that he met with on his many professional visits.  An idea was planted on that run.  I encouraged Jeb and Paul Heule, the Honorary Dutch Counsel in West Michigan to meet. They did and soon thereafter, the West Michigan Global Initiative (WMGI) was born.

Like a summer picnic, a key attribute when developing a board is to make sure each member brings a different offering.  Not everyone can bring Jell-O.  Jeb is driven by developing plans and structure.  I like connecting my many networks, creating opportunities for them to foster strong business and social relationships, and getting people to financially invest in ideas.  Paul knows the West Michigan established hierarchy and everything I’ve seen Paul pursue, is of the highest quality.  Roel Klein, another board member, is from the renewable energy industry, close with the creative class, and has big ideas.  In addition, Roel and Paul know the Netherlands exceptionally well. As with most things in life, timing for us was everything.

Our first meeting was a bit intense.  We had to establish parameters for the new organization including an agenda, as well as the goals, vision, and board members.  Lofty goals were thrown on the table.  But our experienced board members brought structure and the _­know-how based their life and service experience.  I had been part of many boards, but none from the start.  Jeb taught me that for us to be successful, the WMGI needed to clearly spell out five things:

• • A clear mission
  • Strong governance
  • Clear delineation of roles and responsibilities, i.e., the board focuses on policy and staff focuses on management and implementation
  • Functional tension, in which an environment is established allowing for respectful discussion and debate
  • The right size is key as large boards are difficult to manage and can dilute the outcome that the board was set up to implement

The right people with the right attributes were named to our board.  Each had a role, but the strong governance and functional management by a few board members led to the organization’s success.  A decade after establishing the WMGI, the vision remains, and the successes are realized by the ever-strong ties between the West Michigan economic, political, and business leaders and those in the Netherlands.  Earlier this month, with Paul’s coordination and the WMGI board’s management, we undertook another economic mission to the Netherlands.  The focus was agriculture, horticultural, architecture, the arts, and sustainability.  It was another huge success, leading to business deals and stronger relationships in those sectors.

While I’ve enjoyed serving the many boards over my life, it’s my continued service on the WMGI and my fellow board members that have taught me the most.  The initial discussion during our run on campus over a decade ago, coupled with the strong leadership and vision of the WMGI board, has developed into a model that others are working to replicate and many will benefit from serving.

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