Kind of odd, being an employee there, I've never heard of eleven of the twelve board members before.
Being able to sit in on board meetings, and talk during them would be enough, not necessarily having a vote, maybe thats a special adviser?
Big multinationals typically have advisory boards / subcommittees that advise them on certain topics. I assume Microsoft has a technology advisory board (and in their case, likely several) that includes at least some high-level engineering talent.
Leadership at the board level involves high level decision-making, but not a lot of actual work. The CFO of PepsiCo has a ton of responsibilities himself; his position on the board of Microsoft is likely only a few hours a month because it's limited to reading reports prepped by the C-suite and its advisors, then voting on decisions. Senior executives and investors are chosen for boards because their day jobs require an understanding of market context and a good bullshit filter to guard against the Jobsesque pitchman scenario.
IBM purging its hardware divisions, and then buying Red Hat is another example, where a company maybe waited a little too long between moves. Would a more aggressive board pushed the company to do that earlier?
They're playing nice now so Windows 10 spyware gets accepted.
I do know how the stuff works in general, but my technical skills are probably a decade out of date because I've spent that time working up the management ladder and learning those skills instead. But management is more about being able to organize a group of people to do a task, not doing the task yourself.
You'll find that most VCs are also not "even remotely tech people". Guess what - they also happen to sit on many tech startup boards.
Often the CFO (and sometimes other C-level officers) will also report directly to the board, or at least have a direct line of communication that the CEO isn't allowed to interfere with.
This is the preferred employee experience.
A large employer is usually more comfortable having executives of other corporations being more familiar with board members compared to its own employees.
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-does-a-corporate-board-of...
Few people can have more impact on the company than a board, but it's very typically abstracted away.
Did you mean "executives"? Directors and The Board are the same thing; it's The Board of Directors.