Bob Hughes served for almost 30 years on the board of the Lake Washington School District in Redmond/Kirkland, Washington, elected President of that organization four times. He’s also served as a former board member for the Washington State School Directors Association and an eight-year member of the Washington State Board of Education. As a graduate of the Carver Policy Governance Academy Bob has assisted a variety of boards, including profit and non-profits, explore and adopt various governance models and enhancing their organizational effectiveness by focusing attention away from staff activity and more toward “board business.” As such, he has been a regularly invited lecturer and facilitator on governance for nonprofits with the Governance101 organization, as well as 501 Commons and the Executive Service Corps of Washington.
Bob’s primary interest is in helping boards understand and define their role (i.e., board business verses staff business). It is paramount for a board to draw a clear line between the two, something only a board can do. While delegation to staff is necessary, once a board has clarified its role, it becomes the one thing that cannot delegate.
A graduate of Western Washington University, Bob was employed by The Boeing Company, Seattle, Washington for 31 years (now retired), serving as Corporate Director of Education Relations, General Manager of Programming Services and General Manager of Professional Software Products. Before retiring he served in the capacity of a loaned executive, reporting directly to Washington State’s Superintendent of Public Instruction. His role was to assist in the development of a state-wide educational technology plan.
Before leaving Boeing to consult for boards, Bob was asked by the Chairman of the Board and a business group, The Washington Roundtable, to help them in their efforts to encourage the installation and use of educational technology in schools. Serving as a loaned executive and acting as a liaison between the business and educational community, Mr. Hughes became an invited speaker at more than 600 workshops and conferences, organizing nine major conferences and lobbying legislators for both educational reform and high use of technology in schools. During this period he also served as a member of the Washington Roundtable’s Working Committee on Education, a board member for both the Washington State School Directors Association and the California-based Autodesk Education Foundation. In 1989 and in recognition of his work in education, the then Governor Booth Gardner named Bob to Chair his Advisory Council on Advanced Technology in Schools, while the Washington Association of School Administrators awarded him their highest honor, the Golden Gavel.