Reference: GILA/ID/TECH-040/GEO
Board seat: Independent Director, Non-Executive
Primary board location: Ahmedabad with field-operation reviews
Meeting model: Five boards, quarterly technology/risk and field exercise
Mandate type: Risk, Cybersecurity, Technology & AI Director
Status: Confidential live-search specification; client identity released only after conflict clearance and NDA.
The anonymised enterprise
A listed enterprise-drone and geospatial-inspection company serving infrastructure, agriculture and industrial clients through owned platforms and licensed operating partners.
Annual missions exceed 100,000 across multiple states. AI models convert imagery into asset-condition and measurement outputs used for customer decisions.
The board problem and strategic reason for appointment
The board needs oversight of flight safety, operator licensing, model accuracy, customer reliance, imagery rights and dual-use exposure. Demonstration success must not substitute for controlled field performance.
The board is not buying a credential. It is appointing an independent decision-maker who can convert this problem into a governed sequence of choices, evidence and accountability. Success will be judged by the quality of decisions and control improvement, not by the number of recommendations made.
Board position, authority and interfaces
Chair of Technology & Safety Risk; Audit invitee for project acceptance and capitalised software; direct access to safety, DPO and model assurance.
The appointee will have direct, unfiltered access to the Company Secretary and to the relevant control-function leaders. Any advisory support requested by the board must remain management-executed: the director sets questions, tolerances and evidence standards, but does not become an executive or consultant.
First 12–18 month strategic charter
- Set mission-risk tiers, weather/airspace go-no-go rules and operator assurance; validate model accuracy by use case, geography and failure consequence; govern imagery ownership, retention, geofencing and sensitive-site permissions; review project acceptance, manual override and liability when customers rely on automated defect detection
- Translate technical risk into board decisions: risk appetite, investment priorities, accountable owners, recovery tolerances and customer consequences—not dashboards of vulnerabilities or model counts.
- Require independent testing of the severe-but-plausible scenario, including executive decision rehearsal, evidence preservation, regulatory/customer communication and recovery of critical services.
Decision profile sought
Essential evidence
- Aviation safety, geospatial, AI assurance, industrial inspection or robotics leader; board-risk judgement; field-operations credibility
Differentiators
- DGCA-facing operations, computer-vision validation or critical-infrastructure inspection; serious-incident learning
GILA will assess board-level technology judgement, operational resilience, adversarial questioning and enough technical depth to challenge management without becoming a shadow CIO or CISO. Candidates should expect a case discussion based on an ambiguous board decision from this mandate, not a career-history interview alone.
Independence, suitability and downside diligence
The search will apply Section 149(6), Sections 164–165, Schedule IV and the applicable listing or sector rules to the entity’s legally verified status at the appointment date. Databank/proficiency status, listed-entity directorship and committee ceilings, pecuniary relationships, relatives’ interests, recent audit/advisory work and interlocking directorships will be checked. The appointment is subject to formal legal and secretarial confirmation; this posting is not a substitute for that determination.
Mandate-specific screens: Drone OEM, licensed operator, mapping customer or model-vendor ties; dual-use contracts creating conflict; competitor board.
Before accepting the seat, the candidate will receive under NDA the latest board composition, committee charters, material litigation/regulatory schedule, related-party map, last audited accounts, current D&O policy and the specific risk papers necessary to make an informed liability assessment.
Twelve-month outcomes
The board expects a board that knows which digital failures can threaten the enterprise, what tolerances apply and whether recovery claims have been independently tested. For this particular seat, the evidence will be:
- Mission and model risk tiers govern releases; accuracy/false-negative performance independently sampled; sensitive imagery and airspace exceptions closed on evidence
Commitment, protection and economics
- Expected load: 20–26 days annually with field presence.
- Terms: Five-year term; chair fee; aviation, cyber, professional and D&O protection.
- Protection: Appointment letter, deed of indemnity where legally available, appropriate D&O cover including discovery/run-off terms, access to independent advice under the board-approved protocol, and complete minuting of dissent.
- Equity: No stock options where the appointment is legally an independent-director seat subject to Section 149(9). Any private-company structure outside that perimeter will be expressly classified and separately advised; no equity is implied by this posting.
Search process
Conflict pre-clearance → GILA/SYMPHONY™ board-fit interview → mandate case → document-led diligence under NDA → references from board peers and control functions → NRC/owner interviews → statutory, regulatory and reputation checks → board recommendation. Candidate consent, disclosures and appointment approvals will follow the law and the entity’s constitutional documents.