Arizona Tribune - JamesDruryPartners Releases 2026 Edition of The Weight of America's Boards

CHICAGO, IL / ACCESS Newswire / January 27, 2026 / In a market where board oversight now spans cyber risk, activist pressure, capital discipline, and AI governance all at once, who sits in the boardroom matters more than ever. Today, JamesDruryPartners, a leading management consulting firm specializing in corporate board advisory services, released the 2026 edition of The Weight of America's Boards, its annual benchmark of how well America's largest public-company boards are built for modern governance.

For more than sixteen years, The Weight of America's Boards has tracked how board composition evolves as expectations on directors rise. The 2026 edition captures a clear shift in boardrooms: governance capacity is increasingly tied to directors with real operating and financial accountability, particularly CEOs, CFOs, and senior leaders with direct P&L ownership. Companies are responding to rising complexity by prioritizing leaders who have carried decision-making responsibility when outcomes and reputations were on the line.

The 2026 report evaluates governance capacity using Average Director Weight (ADW), an objective measure of the experience and business judgment represented on a board. JamesDruryPartners analyzed 6,264 directors serving on 654 public company boards, covering the 500 largest U.S. companies by revenue and the 500 largest by market capitalization. Boards with the strongest ADW scores consistently reflect a higher concentration of CEOs, CFOs, and senior leaders with direct P&L responsibility. Based on this analysis, Arrow Electronics, Uber Technologies and Elevance Health ranked highest in overall board governance capacity.

Top 10 Corporations with the Highest Average Director Weight (ADW):

1. Arrow Electronics

2. Uber Technologies

3. Elevance Health

4. Starbucks

5. Waste Management

6. PTC Inc.

7. Honeywell

8. Adobe

9. Parker-Hannifin

10. PPG Industries

These boards demonstrate the deepest concentration of executive leadership and serve as reference points for governance capacity among large public companies.

"Effective governance starts with real-world operating and financial experience," said James Drury III, Chairman and CEO of JamesDruryPartners. "Boards are being asked to make harder decisions, faster, and under greater scrutiny. CEOs and CFOs bring a level of judgment and accountability that is difficult to substitute, particularly as the pool of active executives willing to serve continues to narrow."

Key findings: experience is thinning as the workload expands

Beyond the rankings, the numbers point to some practical constraints inside America's modern boardrooms:

• 34% of directors are active executives, while 66% are retired from their primary careers.

• Outside active CFOs remain relatively scarce, appearing on only 16.1% of boards

• 62% of Audit Committee members meet the SEC's definition of a Financial Expert.

As boards take on more responsibility for capital decisions, controls, and risk, these figures highlight where experience may be thinner than the workload now requires.

AI oversight is rising, but boards are not solving it by adding narrow specialists

The study also looks at how boards are responding to the growing influence of artificial intelligence. Just 21% of boards currently include a director with explicit AI experience, but most companies are not trying to solve that gap by adding technical specialists. Instead, AI oversight is being handled by directors with deep operating and financial backgrounds, particularly CEOs, CFOs, and senior business leaders. Responsibility tends to sit within existing committee structures, mirroring how AI shows up across the business rather than in one isolated function. Boards with higher Average Director Weight appear better prepared for these discussions, relying on business judgment and financial discipline rather than narrow technical credentials.

A benchmark and a decision tool for nominating committees

As companies plan for the year ahead, the 2026 edition of The Weight of America's Boards is designed to function as both a benchmark and a decision tool for boards and nominating committees. With governance demands continuing to intensify, board composition is becoming a more consequential determinant of oversight effectiveness.

"Boards won't have the luxury of passive oversight in 2026," said Jim Drury IV, Co-Managing Director of JamesDruryPartners. "This research helps boards pressure-test a simple question: does our composition match the weight we are being asked to carry."

For more details on the firm's latest study, and to access the complete board rankings and analysis, visit https://jdrurypartners.com/news/the-weight-of-americas-boards-2026-edition/.

About JamesDruryPartners

JamesDruryPartners, founded in 2001, offers board advisory services to firms in the U.S. and select countries abroad. Its practice encompasses services that range from traditional director recruitment, board evaluation and benchmarking, director assessment, and its most innovative offering, BoardSelect®, which has counseled over 500 highly qualified executives in optimizing their corporate board appointments. The corporations that have retained our firm to optimize board appointments for their top executives have ranged in revenue size from $1B to $385B, span all industry sectors, and currently include 32% of the Fortune 100. Additional information about our firm can be found at www.jdrurypartners.com.

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Media Contact Info:

Interdependence for JamesDruryPartners
Russ Pagano
(973) 303-3237
[email protected]

For General Firm or Service Inquiries, Contact:

Adam Zajac, Vice President of Communications
JamesDruryPartners
(312) 654-6724
[email protected]

SOURCE: JamesDruryPartners

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S.Jackson--AT