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Eighty20 Publishing · Business / Corporate Governance
Private Equity Boards
An Operator’s Guide to Your First Seat
Digital editions availableTwentieth on the shelf
For operators who want a seat on a private-equity board, and want to be asked back.
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Ebook and fillable Field Guide released . Print forthcoming · November 24, 2026.
About the book
A first board seat rarely comes from an application. A sponsor’s people call someone they’ve watched do one hard thing well. Bill Canady, a CEO who has spent three decades running companies for private-equity owners, shows you how to become that person. Then he shows you how to do the job well enough that the next call comes too.
How to Become a Board Member covers both. Part Six is the search for the first seat. The fifteen chapters before it are the seat itself: the first meeting, the reporting contract, the committees, the covenant scare, the change of chief executive, the add-on and the sale.
Follow Leah Sutter, an independent director, through five years on the board of Hovland Fire & Safety, from the first call to a $576 million sale at 3.05 times the money, and then to her next seat. Hovland, its owners and its people are invented, and its numbers are teaching illustrations. Your team does the work in How to Become a Board Member · The Field Guide.
Readers on Bill’s books
Selected Amazon reviews of The 80/20 CEO, From Panic to Profit and The Rule of Three.
5 out of 5 stars
“What Mr. Canady has done here is curate a business system of complementary processes that make a material impact on business performance. If you are looking for a way to pull your business together and get your teams focused on the few things that truly matter, start here.”
MJMVerified Amazon purchase · The 80/20 CEO
Read the full review5 out of 5 stars
“This book is part of the few business books that have changed my life. Even though the 80/20 principles are simple, implementing 80/20 can be challenging, but Bill shares how he did it multiple times, the obstacles he faced, and how to make the changes stick.”
Denis Ethier (ThriveMate)Verified Amazon purchase · From Panic to Profit
Read the full review4 out of 5 stars
“Bill Canady does not treat leadership as a collection of motivational slogans. Instead, he presents a practical framework for understanding why some organizations execute well while others struggle.”
EstebanAmazon review · The Rule of Three
See it on AmazonAmazon reviews, shown with each reviewer’s Amazon name.
Book → Workbook → Audiobook → Video course
Already have the book? Start with the workbook or explore the related training. Choose only what you need; unfinished editions are marked Coming soon.
Read the method.
The complete ebook in EPUB format for your reading app, delivered by BookFunnel after checkout. The fillable Field Guide is sold separately.
$10 USD
Available now
Buy the ebookChapter 1: The Call.
Put it to work.
The complete 57-worksheet fillable Field Guide: 278 pages with 2,421 fillable fields, and Hovland Fire & Safety’s version filled in facing every blank. Delivered by BookFunnel after checkout.
$10 USD
Available now
Buy the workbookChapter 1: The Call, including worksheets and completed examples.
Listen on the move.
The audio edition for listening in the BookFunnel app or your browser.
$10 USD
Coming soon
Learn it step by step.
Explore the related self-paced training. Each course lists its lessons and included materials.
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Title Set · buy together and save
$18 instead of $20 individually.
Available digital books, workbooks and audio are delivered through BookFunnel after purchase. Title Set savings do not include video courses. Each course lists the reading included with it. Prices are in USD; applicable tax is calculated at checkout. All sales are final.
Choose across the library and saveEbook reviews
Tell other owners and executives what worked. Choose Write a review, pick your stars and share your experience of How to Become a Board Member — Ebook (EPUB).
Bought another edition? Review the Field Guide.
Where it fits · PGOS
Buy businesses, integrate acquisitions and prepare the exit.
“How do I buy, build and sell for more?” Before you buy or sell
How to use it
Start with Part Six before the call: put your one hard thing on a one-page seat profile, work one director association and go where private equity does its deals. Once seated, find the Board’s Number in your first month and read it at every meeting. Work the Field Guide’s fifty-seven worksheets with the chair, the CEO and the sponsor through the sale.
Read it with The Owner’s Edge · Always Be Exiting · Buy the Platform, Build the Exit · The Integration Playbook
See Deals in the PGOS mapEditions
Available to the trade through IngramSpark and to readers through Amazon and your bookseller when published. Wholesale and bulk terms.
The companion
Fillable PDF available
Fifty-seven worksheets, one instrument to a page, with Hovland’s version filled in facing every blank: the seat profile, the board résumé, the yes-or-no test, the Number worksheet, the reporting contract, the covenant forecast and the conflict register. The 278-page PDF has 2,421 fillable fields.
Letter-size, built to be written in. Print and fillable PDF. The book keeps the narrative; the guide holds the working paper.
The author
Bill Canady runs two billion-dollar-plus companies — one at $1.1 billion and one at $1.5 billion — as Chairman and CEO of Arrowhead Engineered Products and Chairman of OTC Industrial Technologies. Across global industrial markets he has delivered over $3 billion in shareholder value. A U.S. Navy veteran with an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, he created the Profitable Growth Operating System (PGOS). He is the author of The 80/20 CEO, The Rule of Three, and other books in the Eighty20 library.
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