Independent judgement, for exactly as long as it matters

A non-executive director sits on the board without a role in day-to-day management. They challenge and support the executive team, bring independent judgement to the decisions that matter most, safeguard the interests of shareholders and, where relevant, wider stakeholders, and open doors through their network and experience. They govern; they do not run the business.

What companies pay their non-executive directors varies with stage, sector and the demands of the role. As a market reference, published UK benchmarks put the annual retainer for a non-executive director at a small or medium-sized business at roughly £15,000 to £30,000, within a wider range of about £5,000 to £50,000, with day rates between about £280 and £1,400. Those figures are market benchmarks, not our terms. What a board should weigh against them is the cost of taking its biggest decisions without independent judgement in the room.

Typically a day or two a month. That usually covers board meetings and preparation, committee work where relevant, and being available to the chief executive between meetings. The commitment rises around defined moments, a transaction, a fundraise or a governance review, and settles again afterwards.

A non-executive director holds a formal seat on the board, carries directors’ duties, and shares responsibility for how the company is governed. An advisory board member has no formal seat and no directors’ duties; they offer experience and connections without a vote or accountability. Advisory input is often the right first step for an early-stage company. A board seat is the right structure when investors, regulators or the weight of the decisions call for formal, independent oversight.

Private companies in the UAE are generally not required to appoint one. For public joint stock companies listed on DFM or ADX the position is different: SCA governance rules require at least one third of the board to be independent directors, and from 2026 the audit, nomination and remuneration committees must be made up entirely of independent directors, with stricter thresholds where the chair and chief executive roles are combined. DIFC and ADGM entities are expected to follow international governance standards, and companies preparing to list are expected to have the independent bench in place well before the IPO. Even where there is no legal requirement, investors increasingly expect independent directors on the boards they back.

Faster than most boards expect. Because the search starts from a curated collective of 350+ vetted C-suite operators rather than an open market, a shortlist typically comes together in weeks. The pace is then set by your side of the process: the brief, the meetings, and the diligence you want to run before an appointment is made.

Under SCA rules, and the standards applied in DIFC and ADGM, independence means the director has no significant financial interest in the company, no employment or consultancy relationship with it in recent years, typically the past three, and no close family ties to its major shareholders or senior management. Independence is what allows a director to challenge the executive team credibly, and it is the quality regulators and institutional investors look for first.

They sit in different lanes. In the business, our executives execute: a fractional executive embeds in the team, owns the outcomes in their domain and is accountable for delivery. On the board, our directors govern: a non-executive director sits above the business, holds leadership to account and brings independence to the big decisions. Both are drawn from the same collective of vetted C-suite operators, and both are engaged for the time the role actually needs. Many companies use both, in different seats.