Introducing the Board & CEO Insights Report 2026

 
Some research confirms what we already suspect. Occasionally, however, it reveals something more significant: a disconnect hiding in plain sight. That is what we found in this year’s Board & CEO Insights Report.

In last year’s survey, executives and non-executives told us broadly the same story. This year their views diverge. CEOs are in the trenches, focused on what is in front of them, while non-executives take a wider view across the organisation and the world it operates in. Neither perspective is wrong, but the gap between them is real.

At Eton Bridge Partners, our work with Chairs, Boards and CEOs brings us close to the relationship between executive leadership and the boardroom. Given the importance of that relationship, any misalignment matters.

Our second annual Board & CEO Insights Report draws on the perspectives of 126 CEOs, Chairs and Non-Executive Directors from across our network, surveyed between July and September 2026. Last year we reported Chairs and NEDs as a single non-executive group. This year the groups’ perspectives part company in several areas, so we show all three separately, alongside the differences we found between listed, PE-backed, privately owned and not-for-profit Boards.

Download the full report to explore the data and insights shaping the boardroom agenda.

Let’s take a look at some of the key findings:
 

Growth remains the shared ambition

Growth was the priority last year and it is the priority again this year, despite continuing economic and geopolitical headwinds. It is also one of the clearest points of agreement in the survey, with Chairs, CEOs and NEDs describing the Board agenda in almost identical terms.

So why are Boards pushing for growth into the very conditions they say concern them most? And why does one group of Boards describe an entirely different agenda?

Cybersecurity is the clearest disconnect

Much of today’s leadership conversation is understandably dominated by AI. But after a year of serious cyber incidents in the UK, it is the Non-Executive Directors in our survey, rather than the executives, who seem most alert to cyber risk. 38% of NEDs place cybersecurity in their top three risks, compared with only 8% of CEOs.

That is the widest gap between any two roles on any risk factor in our research, and it is not the only point in this year’s findings where cyber divides the boardroom.

Chairs and CEOs see progress at a different pace

Ask Chairs and CEOs whether their Board is getting on top of its key risks and you get strikingly different answers. Chairs are largely confident that the work is in hand, while CEOs are far more likely to feel that progress is falling behind.

What lies behind that gap says a good deal about how the relationship between Chair and CEO works in practice.

AI is where Boards feel least equipped

AI sits well down the risk list, yet just over half of respondents identify understanding and governing AI as the area where their Board is most exposed.

Directors are well aware of the gap, and many are already investing their own time in closing it.

Succession is one of the few points of agreement

Succession planning stands apart as one of the few areas where Chairs, CEOs and NEDs agree, and all three point to the same barrier. It is one Boards know well, and one that has proved hard to shift.

Why these gaps matter

When Boards and executive teams disagree on the risks facing the business or the pace of action required, it raises questions about how aligned they really are. Until those differences are surfaced, risks can’t be properly prioritised, understood or managed at the highest level.

The question, then, is not whether CEO and Board perspectives differ. It is why those differences persist and what organisations can do about them.

The Board & CEO Insights Report is both a snapshot of how Boards and executives view the opportunities, risks and priorities shaping organisations today, and a prompt for the conversations that should follow. Its value lies not simply in its findings, but in the discussions it should provoke.

For Chairs and NEDs, it offers a chance to test whether your view of risk and progress is shared by your executive team.

For CEOs, it shows where your view of the organisation differs from those who oversee it, and where that gap needs to be surfaced early.

For current and aspiring Board members, it shows where Boards feel least equipped and how directors are developing to close the gap.

Beyond these headlines, the report also explores where Boards spend their time compared with where they believe they add most value, why many NEDs are less certain than executives about the information they receive, and how ownership shapes what listed, PE-backed, privately owned and not-for-profit Boards worry about. It also includes commentary from leaders across our practices on what these findings mean for Boards.

Every Board has priorities. The more important question is whether those priorities are shared and understood by everyone around the table.

Download the full report to explore how CEOs, Chairs and NEDs view the risks and priorities shaping organisations today.