First Middle East edition of Board Value Index shines spotlight on board effectiveness in GCC

Key findings

UAE, 08 December 2025 – Board Intelligence, EMEA’s largest board technology and advisory firm, today unveiled the inaugural Middle East edition of its flagship Board Value Index, which examines how boards across the region are driving organisational value.

The Board Value Index is based on data from board directors from companies with over £50 million in revenue across the Middle East. It aims to track the value that boards deliver for their organisations, identify the key challenges they face, and uncover opportunities to enhance their contribution to long-term success.

The first-ever Middle East Board Value Index marks a defining moment in the evolution of the region’s governance landscape, revealing a new generation of boards that are shifting from compliance-led oversight to strategic engines of long-term value creation.

A new generation of confident, capable boards

Nearly half of directors (48%) surveyed view their boards as essential tools for value creation, underscoring widespread confidence in their ability to manage risk and unlock organisational performance.

The survey also highlights a region of capable, efficient, and well-aligned boards constrained by information and process challenges. While 94% of respondents described their board processes as efficient, information quality (41%) and rigid decision frameworks (38%) were flagged as key barriers to agile board decision-making.

This sense of confidence represents an opportunity for business in the region, setting the stage for leaders to evolve boardroom practices to become even more forward- and insight-driven. To capitalise on this opportunity and sustain momentum, directors will need to sharpen how they use their time, the quality of information that fuels their decisions, and the agility of their decision-making frameworks to enhance foresight, risk preparedness, and strategic responsiveness.

Boards still spend more time looking back than ahead

When it comes to boardroom focus, the Board Value Index reveals that most Middle East boards still dedicate more time to looking back than looking ahead. Only 21% of directors report an even split in meetings between reviewing past performance and planning for the future, while 41% spend more time looking backwards than forwards. Only 38% of boards take a more forward-focused approach.

This imbalance suggests that the majority of boards are not yet prioritising forward-looking, strategic conversations. This also signals a major opportunity to evolve how board time is used and to embed a more future-focused agenda centered on strategy, innovation, and long-term value creation.

Pippa Begg, CEO of Board Intelligence, said: “We are privileged to launch our first-ever Board Value Index for the region. The Middle East’s boardrooms are entering a new era of strategic confidence. As economies evolve and regional integration accelerates, boards are no longer content with oversight alone — they are stepping up as architects of performance and national progress. The challenge now is to make that confidence count by looking further forward. In a world of rapid change, the most valuable boards are those that can turn insight into foresight and governance into growth.”

Alignment with regional transformation agendas

The study also finds boards across the Middle East are deeply aligned with national and regional transformation priorities:

• Middle East integration & diversification: 48% of boards describe themselves as “actively leading” the Middle East’s integration and diversification agenda, while a further 50% are “engaged contributors”. This combined 98% demonstrates alignment but highlights an opportunity for more boards to take a leading, not just participatory, role.
• National transformation alignment: 60% report “extremely effective” alignment, with national transformation agendas such as Saudi Vision 2030 and UAE Vision 2050 fully embedded in their organisation’s strategy, while 37% say they are moderately aligned. This indicates that while commitment is widespread, the depth of alignment varies.
• Geopolitical foresight & preparedness: 58% of directors in the Middle East say their boards have a strong capacity to anticipate geopolitical shifts, demonstrating proactive scenario planning and risk modelling, while another 41% report moderate readiness, meaning they are more responsive than anticipatory. This level of geopolitical readiness underscores the importance of forward- and outward-looking board agendas fueled by high-quality insight. Strengthening predictive foresight and information quality will be key to enabling boards to move from reactive governance to anticipatory leadership.
• Cyber resilience & risk management: 60% express very high confidence in their ability to oversee and respond effectively to a major cybersecurity or data breach incident in line with Middle East regulatory and data protection requirements, noting that their boards have clear protocols and defined response frameworks. The remaining 40% express moderate confidence, indicating that while oversight is adequate, it could be more structured. No respondents reported low confidence, pointing to institutional trust and competence but also to uneven depth in risk management capabilities.
• Sovereign stakeholder engagement: 61% of directors report being very confident in their board’s ability to manage relationships with sovereign or government stakeholders such as regulators, investment authorities, and state shareholders, citing structured engagement and regular dialogue practices. A further 39% are somewhat confident, describing effective but informal relationship management, resulting in a 100% net confidence level across Middle East. This universal confidence reflects the region’s high degree of institutional trust and the increasingly strategic role boards play in shaping national and sovereign partnerships.

Together, these findings portray a boardroom culture defined by confidence, discipline, and purpose — yet also one that is evolving from alignment to anticipation.

As the region’s economies diversify and digitise, Middle Eastern boards are poised to lead the next phase of transformation, turning confidence into foresight, strengthening strategic engagement with sovereign and national agendas, and translating good governance into long-term value creation.

Notes for Editors

Board Intelligence is EMEA’S largest board technology and advisory firm. Trusted by more than 80,000 leaders across the Fortune 500, FTSE 100, and OMX 30, Board Intelligence supercharges boards with the science of board effectiveness. For more information, visit boardintelligence.com and follow on LinkedIn.  

Board Intelligence’s Board Value Index is based on independent research conducted among 333 board directors across the UK, US, Canada, and GCC representing organisations with revenues above £50 million. It is the leading benchmark designed to measure board performance from the perspective of value creation, decision-making effectiveness, and future-readiness.

• The UK & North America winter 2025 edition of the Board Value Index surveyed 233 board members, including executive directors, for example CEOs, and non-executive directors (also referred to as independent directors). This consisted of 118 directors of UK-based companies, 80 directors of United States-based companies and 35 directors of Canada-based companies.
• The inaugural Middle East edition of the Board Value Index surveyed 100 board directors from across the GCC, including the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman.