8-Time Board Member Before 35, Helping Professionals Land Board Positions
Mcklein Javeri is a Non-Executive Director, strategy consultant, and founder of Fortuna Directors, where he helps ambitious mid-to-senior professionals land paid board roles and build portfolio careers.
His own path to the boardroom was anything but typical. Before corporate strategy, billion-dollar projects, and board appointments, Mcklein spent five years at a scholastic monastery in rural India, living as a monk with no exposure to the corporate world. When he later moved into university, consulting, and business, he had no family roadmap for how senior careers were meant to work. That distance from the usual rules became an advantage. He learned to question the assumptions most professionals inherit without realising it, especially the idea that board careers are reserved for retired executives, C-suite insiders, or people with the right network.
By the time he turned 35, Mcklein had served on seven boards, later building a portfolio of eight board roles that allowed him to leave full-time employment, earn more, work less, and contribute at a more strategic level. Along the way, he delivered major strategy projects for organisations including easyJet, Virgin Australia, Deloitte, and private single-family offices.
Through his Boardroom Accelerator Program, Mcklein has turned that experience into a structured, practical system for others. His approach is built for professionals who are capable of board-level contribution but feel unclear on where to begin, how to position themselves, or how to move beyond vague advice to “network more.” The programme combines strategy, scripts, templates, tools, positioning work, and a step-by-step execution process designed to make the board career journey less dependent on guesswork.
As a podcast guest, Mcklein brings a candid, practical perspective on breaking outdated boardroom myths, building a portfolio career, and turning senior experience into paid strategic influence.
Senior professionals often underestimate how much of their existing experience can translate into board value, especially if they are used to thinking in terms of job titles rather than governance…
Most senior professionals are waiting for board opportunities to arrive through reputation, recruiters, or the right network, but McKlein sees that as exactly why so many capable people stay stuck.…
For ambitious professionals aiming at the C-suite, an external board role can do something their current executive track often cannot: prove they can think beyond function, department, and delivery…
A lot of talented professionals rule themselves out of board roles because they did not come from the right background, do not have the perfect title, or assume other people understand a hidden game…