85. Pioneering augmented directorship with Jamie Green

In this episode of On Boards, hosts Joe Ayoub and Raza Shaikh welcome Jamie Green, co-founder and CEO of Tutaki,  an AI-powered workbench designed to make board directors significantly more effective. 

Drawing from his background in consulting at McKinsey, Green created a technological solution to solve a widespread challenge in board rooms across the U.S. and abroad: information overload and limited time to prepare. Tutaki is an AI system that acts as an expert co-pilot to help directors surface context, identify risk and deliver impact. 

Jamie also shares how AI is reshaping governance, what it means for liability and independence, and where the future of boardrooms may be headed.

Key takeaways

1. Problems with board overload

• During his time as a consultant at McKinsey, Jamie would deliver 300-page strategy decks to board members 48 hours before a meeting 
• Directors would arrive unprepared, leading to conservations about updates and recaps rather than strategic discussions. The lack of preparation risked slow decision making and stifles innovation.

2. New Zealand boardrooms 

• Jamie, based in New Zealand, said board practices in his home country are similar to the U.S. but New Zealand directors tend to have a wider board portfolio — some are on as many as 8 boards. 

• New Zealand has shifted to increase liability for board directors to hold them accountable for reading all board materials. If the business is impacted by the lack of action by a director, they can be criminally liable.

 

3. Practical pain points that led to Tutaki

• Information overload: directors are expected to digest hundreds of pages, news articles, and compliance documents across multiple boards.
•  Contextual awareness: recalling what was decided three months ago or tracking delays in projects across several meetings often requires wading through thousands of pages.
•  Portfolio management: professional directors often sit on 5–8 boards, making it difficult to organize materials, track follow-ups, and maintain oversight across them all.

4. AI as a co-pilot, not a replacement

• Tutaki is used to aid directors with meeting preparation by analysing board materials, delivering internal information, relevant news reports, competitor updates and deep dive reports.
• While Tutaki might suggest functions by providing certain information, Green said that the AI serves as a tool and the person using it is still liable
• The AI tool is meant to help directors spend more time doing critical thinking and being effective in meetings by being prepared with the context of the material. 

Quotes

• "We help you do the thinking, but the thinking is still yours, and ultimately that's the end game."

• "I  think the power of all this stuff is getting you the context in the way that's meaningful as opposed to just dumping hundreds of pages of information that you have to sift through."

• "If you had an AI tool listening to every conversation you had, every email, every document for the last three years on this board, I guarantee it would be a pretty damn good director."

 

Links

Tutaki 

Guest Bio

Jamie Green is the co-founder and CEO of Tutaki, an AI-powered workbench designed to make board directors radically more effective. Drawing on his background in strategy consulting at McKinsey and hundreds of conversations with chairs and directors, Jamie built Tutaki to solve one of the boardroom's biggest challenges: staying on top of exploding information, tightening comp