Why Comms should Report to the Board rather than the CEO

Gerard F. Corbett:

It’s time to move the CCO’s dotted line — from the CEO’s office to the boardroom.

For decades, communications leaders have reported to CEOs. It made sense when the function was primarily about press releases and speechwriting. That world no longer exists and is gone forever.  In a thoughtful dialogue with a friend, Hitachi Industrial’s Stephanie Roberts, the realization hit like a thunderbolt.

Today’s chief communications officer manages institutional reputation across ESG, geopolitical risk, executive conduct, investor relations, social media, and crisis response. These are board-level concerns and they deserve board-level accountability.

Here’s why the governance model must change:

1. Independence protects truth. A CCO who reports to a CEO cannot fully serve the organization when the CEO is part of the problem. Crisis communications require unfiltered authority. That authority only comes with structural independence.
2. Reputation is an enterprise asset. No single executive owns corporate reputation. The board governs the full enterprise — and so does the CCO’s work. Scope should drive structure.
3. The CEO can be the subject of the crisis. When leadership itself is implicated — misconduct, failure, scandal — the CCO cannot serve both the CEO and the institution. Board reporting resolves that conflict before it becomes catastrophic.
4. Capital markets already expect it. Shareholder communications, proxy disclosures, and ESG reporting flow through the board. Inserting the CEO as an intermediary between the board and its communications function is structurally inconsistent with fiduciary duty.
5. Precedent is on our side. General counsels once reported to CFOs. Chief risk officers once reported to operations. Their elevation to CEO, and in some cases board committee,  reporting came when their functions became too strategic to subordinate. Communications has crossed that threshold.

The parallel to the legal function is instructive. When boards realized that legal counsel couldn’t fully serve the institution while subordinated to management, they changed the reporting structure. The same realization is overdue for communications.

The Chief Communications Officer should have a seat at the governance table — not a seat outside the CEO’s door.

What’s holding boards back from making this change? I’d argue it’s familiarity, not logic.

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Gerard F. Corbett is CEO of Redphlag.