IT was 25 years ago that Sir John Parker took on his first nonexecutive directorship. So it is perhaps fitting that the Northern Ireland-born City grandee should celebrate this landmark by last week winning two awards for his work in the boardroom.

Parker, the chairman of National Grid, admitted being “surprised and stunned” after he was named top nonexecutive of an FTSE All-Share listed company and also carried off the overall award at the Non-Executive Director Awards, set up by investment bank KBC Peel Hunt and co-sponsored by The Sunday Times.

Much has changed in the past quarter of a century. Even a decade ago, a nonexecutive directorship was often seen as a cosy job, offering a bit of extra income for former company bosses who had chosen partial retirement. Today, the nonexecutive in the boardroom faces an increasingly tough and challenging job.

New legislation under the Companies Act has ratcheted up the threat of legal action, a wave of new corporate-governance guidelines have been introduced, activist shareholders are all too ready to put nonexecutives under fire, and pensions regulations have added to the complexity of meeting stakeholder demands. That has made the role of the nonexecutive even more crucial.

“For me, the role is a vital and privileged one,” said Parker. “You get to sit round the table on an equal footing and with the same legal obligations as those who run a company.

“To be a successful nonexecutive you have to be able to influence the executive team. One thing is that you have to leave the ego at the door and gain the respect, so that people will listen to your views.”

Parker argues that this trust is paramount, allowing the nonexecutives to play a strong role on major corporate matters such as acquisitions, demergers or significant investments.

“These are the things that can make or break shareholder value and where good nonexecutives can act in a way that makes them worth their weight in gold,” he said.

For Parker, you cannot beat experience. “This is a job that you can’t teach. You can tell people what to look out for, but you have to be ready to learn, and learn from experience.”

Parker certainly has a wealth of that. The son of a farming family in County Down took his first nonexecutive role at the Industrial Development Board of Northern Ireland in 1983, the same year he returned to the shipbuilder Harland & Wolff as chairman and chief executive.

His nonexecutive record spans 12 companies, including eight as chairman, and covers the engineering, shipbuilding, aerospace, mining, logistics, transport and energy sectors. As a chairman, Parker presided over the sale of transport group P&O to DP World in 2006 and Cemex’s takeover of RMC in 2005.

So what is the biggest challenge facing a nonexecutive director?

“Getting the right chief executive and ensuring the right balance of skills round the boardroom to deal with the big issues when they arise,” said Parker, who pipped Peter Ellwood, the ICI chairman, and Premier Farnell chairman Sir Peter Gershon to the award for FTSE All-Share companies.

Others argue that the rise of shareholder activists and increasingly strict corporate-governance guidelines pose equally big challenges.

In the past year, rebel shareholders have filed a class-action lawsuit against the defence giant BAE Systems, accusing past and present directors of being “reckless” and “negligent”, while questions have been asked about the independence of nonexecutives at HSBC.

In recent years, there have been concerns that the increasingly arduous role of a nonexecutive could frighten off many former executives and lead to a dive in quality in Britain’s boardrooms. Parker disagrees, arguing that there is “far greater discipline and the processes are better defined and understood”.

“If you think it is too onerous, you probably should not be there,” he said.

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