Board craft, discussed at working depth.
Governance Bites treats governance as work done around a table, not as abstract theory. Its conversations move through board agendas, CEO appointments, Crown entities, sports strategy, director learning, and long-term value creation with patient attention to process.
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Governance Bites is a practical interview series about boards, directors, and the mechanics of good governance. It is calm, focused, and unusually interested in process. The show’s central question is not whether governance matters, but how it is actually done when people sit down to make decisions. Recent conversations cover value creation, board meeting content, CEO recruitment, Crown entity mandates, sports strategy, director learning, and board effectiveness. The format is straightforward. A guest brings a field of experience, and the conversation follows the problems that boards repeatedly face. Some episodes look at the agenda itself: what should occupy board time, what should be left to management, and how retrospective reporting can crowd out future-facing work. Others focus on the chair’s responsibilities, especially when appointing a CEO, setting up a proper process, and explaining the decision to stakeholders. Long-term value creation is treated as a governance discipline, not just an ambition. The show pays attention to trade-offs between short-term returns and future value, and to the maturity required to make those choices. Public governance is also a recurring concern. Crown entities are discussed through mandates, statutory boundaries, funding, and the practical limits those create compared with private-sector freedom. The series has room for history as well. The episode with Sir William Birch moves through rural background, public life, ministerial service, and a later governance career. It is not a fast or performative listen. The show’s strength is its patience. Guests are allowed to explain, qualify, and build out examples. That makes it especially useful for directors, executives, advisers, and governance students who want to hear the language of the boardroom applied to real situations. It is a podcast for listeners who care about the difference between oversight, strategy, process, and operational interference.
Made for: Governance Bites is for directors, chairs, executives, board advisers, and students of governance who want practical examples rather than motivational business talk. It also suits listeners interested in New Zealand public, private, and sport governance.
What sets it apart: The show stands out for its patient attention to boardroom process: agendas, mandates, chair conduct, CEO recruitment, and constructive challenge. It treats governance as a working discipline shaped by decisions, documents, roles, and meeting behavior.
Mark Banicevich interviews a series of experts about governance, including company directors, lawyers, executive managers, and governance consultants. Each interview is on a different topic related to governance, tied to the guest's expertise. He also asks interviews for the best governance advice they've received, or they would give to new directors.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Governance Bites translates boardroom principles into practical questions about meetings, appointments, oversight and long-term value.
Governance Bites turns board responsibility into a series of concrete decisions. Mark Banicevich builds each conversation around a defined governance problem, including meeting procedure, board composition, CEO recruitment and long-term value creation.
The chair can change the agenda without permission; your next board meeting might thank you.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Boards create value when governance shapes choices, not just supervision.
This Governance Bites conversation with Laurie Kubiak treats governance as a tool for value creation, not a compliance chore. Drawing on executive, board, and owner experience, Kubiak argues for boards to spend less time in committee mode and more time on the choices that shape…
A clear reminder that good boards are there to shape the future.
This episode puts Steve Bowman across as a steady, practical guide to what a board meeting should actually do. The point is simple but easy to lose: meetings should shape the organization’s next steps, not just sit through reports.
CEO hiring is treated as a board process, not a shortcut.
Governance Bites follows Joe Catanzariti as he talks through the chair's role in recruiting a CEO, and the emphasis stays on process rather than drama.
A practical, low-drama guide to building boards that fit the job.
The episode treats board building as a process problem, not a lucky break. The guest draws on sports-governance experience to answer a plain but useful question: how do you improve the odds of getting the right mix of people, skills, and judgment on a board?
A practical look at Robert's Rules that starts with the motions boards actually need first.
Governance Bites takes on a familiar boardroom problem: how to make Robert's Rules feel usable instead of intimidating. Susan Leahy, who wrote Robert's Rules Made Simple, speaks to the practical side of it.
A season-long narrative reconstruction of the 2012 Benghazi attack and its political fallout.
Politics after the headline breaks open.
Reagan-era America, observed at close range.
Laurie Kubiak opens on the boardroom crossover.
This episode features an interview with former New Zealand Minister of Finance Sir William Birch, discussing his personal background and political career spanning 27 years.
Mike Beniciovic opens the conversation with Steve Bowman, Managing Director of Conscious Governance, by asking what makes a genuinely good board meeting.
Interview with John Mason, CEO of Sideways, discussing visual learning for directors and corporate governance.
Governance Bites opens with Joe Catanzariti, Chair of the College of Law and a member of the Order of Australia, and quickly gets into his governance background.
Tracey Cross shares six secrets to supercharge board effectiveness in a governance podcast.
Rob Everett discusses the differences in governance between private sector boards and crown entity boards, based on his experience as CEO of NZ Growth Capital Partners and the Financial Markets Authority.
Professor Leslie Firkins discusses her PhD research on the strategic role of sports boards in governance.
Interview with CEO John Davies about how boards should approach artificial intelligence and technology governance.
An interview about how directors on multiple boards manage information overload and conflicts of interest, featuring a CEO of a director co-pilot software company.
Professor Lesley Firkins discusses collaborative governance in sport, defining the term and its application.
Martin Sneddon takes up a practical governance problem: how do you give yourself the best chance of ending up with a good board?
Stephen Upton discusses key skills and competencies needed for nonprofit boards, focusing on recruiting skilled directors.
Susan Leahy presents Robert's Rules as a practical tool for boards.