Welcome to your board director briefing with our selection of top stories and governance-related research.

I reflect on this week’s Women in Business Summit by FT Live, including how strategy is more than a glossy presentation, action is important. Elsewhere we have stories on executive pay, Anthropic and dealmaking.

If you want to catch up on recent briefings, you can explore the FT Infosys Board Network hub, where you’ll find links to FT.com articles, research and our archive of newsletters.

Do you have comments or suggestions for us? Send them to me at Andrew Hill at andrew.hill@ft.com or Kate Hodge at kate.hodge@ft.com.

Thanks for reading.

Earlier this week, I co-chaired my favourite event of the year, the FT Live Women in Business Summit. This year’s event was lit up by the luminous calm of author and advocate Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, wrongly detained by the Iranian regime for six years. “We don’t know how strong we are until we’re put to the test,” she said.

Her lesson on the importance of perspective was one of four I took away. A second was the importance of family. Canada’s former deputy prime minister — and ex FT colleague — Chrystia Freeland told me with some emotion how her father, now suffering from dementia, nudged her from journalism into politics.

Other speakers reminded the audience that nobody succeeds without a personal and professional network of sponsors and supporters.

The third message of the day came from Lina Souloukou, chief executive of English football club Nottingham Forest. She underlined the importance of asking the right questions. The data shows women continue to quit the workforce prematurely, often to raise a family, and, if they return, they suffer a cut in wages and status.

“If a bunch of players came to us and said ‘I want to leave’, we would ask ‘what’s the problem?’” Souloukou pointed out. Yet not all companies have understood that this is a real business issue.

Finally comes the importance of action. I talked with Dame Debbie Crosbie, chief executive of building society Nationwide, now one of the UK’s biggest retail financial institutions. As the government’s champion for women in finance, she applauded the appointment of more women to UK boards, but lamented the dearth of female CEOs at listed companies.

During her career, she has sat through a lot of fancy presentations — “quite a lot by men”. In strategy, “getting stuff done is significantly underrated”, she told me. This is where many women could come in, according to Crosbie. They are “way more practical, they’re way more energetic around ‘what are we are actually going to do?’ rather than [making] glossy presentations”.

Lex unpicks UniCredit chief Andrea Orcel’s bid for Commerzbank, and questions whether the circuitous route will pay off.

Orcel is closer to gaining control at below-market price. But “a victorious UniCredit would still have to manage its target’s 40,000 staff, millions of customers, a suspicious regulator and a very ticked-off government,” it says.

Sometimes, “the simplest path is the best”.

‌

‌

My top FT picks

Investor support for executive pay rises even as awards rocket Remuneration: Shareholders tend to vote for high compensation as long as it is linked to performance The reclusive heirs in line for billions when Europe’s top tankmaker lists Shareholders: Unlikely cast of characters who own half of KNDS set for a windfall as Berlin prepares to buy in at an up to €20bn valuation The White House’s capricious controls on Anthropic Technology: An opaque approach to US policy risks hampering AI development Buying Britain: overseas buyers pile into UK companies M&A: Value of UK deals by foreign buyers more than triples from same period last year to hit a two-decade high

‌

1. 2026 annual litigation trends survey: A mid-year industry pulse | Norton Rose Fulbright This research is based on responses from 135 corporate lawyers at US-based organisations in four sectors. When asked what might spark class actions, 51 per cent of respondents said data or cyber security incidents, while 47 per cent noted “workforce changes” like job cuts.

2. Moral courage is a leadership competency | London Business School New research suggests there may be benefits to flagging misconduct. It found that, “employees who confront powerful wrongdoers can gain reputational rewards, earning admiration, trust, and even greater resources”.

3. 2026 global AI jobs barometer | PwC This research analysed a billion job ads, it says. Noteworthy findings include that “greater AI exposure is linked to headcount growth, not decrease”, while wages at companies that are more exposed to AI are also “growing significantly faster.”