Abstract
During times of crisis, board directors are known to step down, making the nomination committee - responsible for managing the nomination process of new directors - a key stakeholder. We suggest that during turbulent times, the board's resource needs change so rapidly and dramatically that the nomination committee cannot keep pace with these evolving demands. Consequently, it may favour alternative criteria in its nomination process. Specifically, we propose that the nomination committee will favour similarity in expertise among board candidates to facilitate rapid decision-making. Our study examines whether the expertise of both the nomination committee and its chair serves as an important predictor of the board’s overall expertise composition. The empirical findings suggest that the nomination committee’s expertise levels predict the board’s expertise across firm, industry, financial, and general business domains. However, we find that the NC chair’s expertise can both strengthen and weaken this relationship. Overall, our research indicates that the NC’s expertise is an antecedent of board expertise, underscoring its central role and influence in corporate governance during times of crisis.