Shannon Nash, COO and CFO of Vibrant Planet, Partner at Alpha, and board member at NetScout Systems, SoFi Bank, and Lazy Dog Restaurants, joins the Boardroom Governance Podcast to discuss boards, AI agents, human judgment, cybersecurity, regulated and private company boards, risk resilience, escalation, and how directors can ask better questions about AI governance.
(0:00) About the Boardroom Governance Summit (Aug 26-27, 2026)
(0:43) Intro
(2:08) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.
(2:54) Start of interview.
(3:56) Origin Story of Shannon Nash
(7:00) Her pivot from Law to Finance
(9:15) Her operating and finance career
(12:55) Her experience in tech (subscription businesses) and current COO and CFO role at Vibrant Planet
(15:50) Her first board (UserTesting) and subsequent board career (Netscout, SoFi, Lazy Dog Restaurants, Silicon Valley Community Foundation)
(22:04) Cybersecurity Meets AI
(28:47) Where are the Humans? The next wave in the agentic era
(31:44) Regulated Boards and Risk
(36:25) Private Board Experience (VC and PE).
(41:13) About Alpha AI, focusing on AI Governance
(43:53) On her podcast No Boxes, Just Verses
(46:45) Her obsession with the Acquired podcast
(47:41) Her mentors
(49:40) Quotes that she thinks of often or lives her life by.
(51:06) An unusual habit or an absurd thing that she loves. Beat Shazam show
(52:15) The living person she most admires.
Shannon Nash is a qualified financial expert, attorney, and CPA with over 30 years at the intersection of technology, finance, and governance. She serves as a board member in both public and private companies.