Samantha Kappagoda was a speaker at NACD Summit 2025, on October 12-15, 2025 in Washington DC. Samantha organized and moderated the panel Board Governance Under Uncertainty: It’s the Economy … a session covering a range of current boardroom topics, including geopolitics and uncertainty, financial market volatility, macroeconomic trends, tariffs, as well as board governance, agility, adaptability and composition. Samantha’s fellow panelists were the following:
- Evelyn Dilsaver: Board Member, Somnigroup International (SGI), Health Equity (HQY), QuidelOrtho (QDEL), PACS Group (PACS), and Bailard REIT
- Christine Gorjanc: Board Member, Polestar and Forward Air; Juniper Networks (previous)
- Nichelle Maynard-Elliott: Founder and CEO, Dunamis Transaction Advisors; Independent Director, Xerox (XRX) and Lucid Group (LCID)
Samantha Kappagoda’s Contribution at NACD Summit 2025
Samantha’s NACD Summit 2025 contribution — organizing and moderating a panel on board governance under macroeconomic uncertainty, and participating in an invitation-only AI governance roundtable — drew on the full breadth of her differentiators: capital markets depth from Caxton Associates, crisis governance experience, and published AI governance thought leadership in Directors & Boards and the NACD Director Essentials series. Her role as panel organizer and moderator at this event reflected capabilities on governance thinking on a range of topics beyond technology oversight.
Samantha also participated in the invitation-only roundtable discussion: AI in the Boardroom. Samantha previously served as faculty at the NACD Master Class on Technology and Innovation Oversight in April 2025, and as a panelist for the Top-10 ranked Blind Spots in the Boardroom at NACD Summit 2024.
NACD has been the premier association for board directors for over 45 years, with approximately 24,000 members serving over 1,750 boards, with over 20 chapters across 35 locations. The NACD Summit is an annual event that convenes approximately 1,500 corporate directors and other governance professionals.
About Samantha Kappagoda
Samantha Kappagoda is a board director and technology strategist who brings a distinctive blend of capital markets judgment, AI governance and data strategy expertise to complex, regulated environments. Her boardroom perspective leverages her operating experience — in data, analytics and technology — to navigate emerging opportunities, drive value and mitigate risk.
Samantha currently serves as Board Director, Nominating & Governance Committee Chair and Audit Committee Member at the Credit Suisse Funds, now under UBS (NYSE: UBS), and a Member of the Governing Council Business Board at the University of Toronto. She also serves as Chief Data Scientist and Co-Founder of Numerati® Partners LLC, a RiskTech firm, and Visiting Scholar at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.
Recognized by the Financial Times as a Future 50 Director, and a Director to Watch by Directors & Boards magazine, Samantha is the author of Board Governance of AI & Emerging Technologies, in Directors & Boards, and a contributor to NACD Director Essentials: Implementing AI Governance. She is an active contributor at governance forums in USA, Canada and UK, addressing AI and data governance, cybersecurity, financial markets and global macroeconomic trends. She has served as faculty at NYU Directors’ Academy, NACD Master Class on Technology and Innovation Oversight and Diligent Institute, and been an invited panelist at conferences including Character of the Corporation, Corporate Board Member, Independent Directors Council, Institute of Directors UK, NACD Summit, Private Directors Association, Society for Corporate Governance, WCD Global Institute, and WGOB Canada. Samantha has been awarded the DCRO Institute Certificate in Risk Governance®, Certificate in Private Company Governance from the Private Directors Association, and has also completed the Harvard Business School Program Making Corporate Boards More Effective. For additional information, please see Samantha’s biography and recent news.
