A couple of years ago, I was invited to join an advisory board. I met the dean when I was in a marketing role and she was looking for someone from my company to participate on her board. It wouldn't have been me. It would have been one of the senior staff, probably our chief medical officer. In the end, my boss decided not to pursue participation on the advisory board. But the dean and I developed a friendship. About once a quarter, we would meet for lunch. We talked about the changing health industry. Her perspective in academia was very different from mine in industry.
Once I changed companies, the dean asked me to join her board. I told her I didn't think I was senior enough, but she didn't agree. Whoever approves these things at the university must have agreed because I was asked formally. My boss in my new company decided that it was okay for me to be on the board. And so I joined the board.
This year, the college is trying to fund a building for the college on the larger university's campus. The university and the state don't have the money for the building, so the advisory board is trying to help raise the funds. If we can raise some of the money, hopefully it will spur the state to pony up the rest of it.
To raise the funds, the members of the advisory board have been asked to recommend people and companies who might have funds to donate. Large amounts of money. And this is where I feel inadequate. Because I don't have those kinds of connections. I know people who know people, but I don't know anyone directly who has that kind of money. I don't move in those circles. I'm just not that senior.
And I feel bad about that. And it reiterates my feelings that I may not be right for an advisory board. Inadequate.
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