Designing a portfolio career starts well before retirement. It requires foresight, intentional development, and years of preparation.
With 30 years of software investing experience, more than 550 active investments, and a global network of founders and enterprise executives, Insight Partners brings a perspective and level of access few others can match.
The Empower Program provides the framework, roadmap, tools, and access to help CIOs successfully prepare for this transition.
Why portfolio career preparation is hard
This is a long game, and most CIOs start too late.
Many CIOs wait until retirement is in sight to pursue board roles, but the skills, credibility, and references required take years to build.
There’s no obvious playbook, and no time to figure it out alone.
Between a demanding role and competing priorities, it’s hard to know what to do, who to talk to, or where to invest limited time. Progress is slow and easy to deprioritize.
The best opportunities never show up in your inbox.
Board and advisory roles are rarely posted. They’re filled through trusted networks built deliberately over time, and without the right access, they’re easy to miss.
Competition is real, and differentiation matters.
CIOs often compete with CEOs and CFOs for board roles, but their tech focus can make it harder to articulate their broader value.
How we can help
The Empower Program is designed for CIOs who want to prepare intentionally for a portfolio career 5-10 years before stepping away from their final operating role.
So the transition feels intentional, not rushed, you’ll gain access to hands-on support at every stage of your journey, including an intake assessment, networking opportunities, and a learning path guided by our team of experts.
Hear from our members
“The Empower Program stands out for its no-nonsense approach to rethinking how we engage boards and what boards actually care about in a fast-changing environment where business strategy, risk, and technology move in lockstep. The peer discussions are candid and practical. It is a pragmatic reset for executives looking to engage and contribute more effectively at the board level.”
—Ericson Chan, Group Chief Information & Digital Officer at Zurich Insurance
“As an early member of the Empower community, attending the Iceland retreat gave me the space to intentionally design my portfolio career. Working closely with the Empower team helped me understand the different paths available to me, what a portfolio career could realistically look like, and how to start preparing for it. Through conversations with peers who had already made the transition, I moved from simply thinking about it to taking concrete steps forward. Most importantly, I realized I could make this shift into a full-time portfolio career much earlier than I had expected.”
—Cindy Hoots, Chief Digital Officer & CIO at AstraZeneca