This book did not materialize overnight; a succession of articles, presentations, and papers have shaped our thinking over the years, inspired by first-hand experience, sharing dilemmas and insights with trustees, investment managers and regulators.

Sharing numerous discussions and experiences with trustees, acquired when giving courses, serving on pension funds' boards or assisting boards advisory projects on strategies, we were regularly struck by how much the investment profession has evolved in the past 40 years. Portfolio techniques have evolved; risk management too, supported by an ever-increasing need and supply of information. One thing is clear though: new texts and insights that keep up with the changing markets and role of trustees are needed, integrating the new insights in portfolio management with investment governance in such a way that trustees and board keep on excelling.

Our minds were first opened to the importance of boards and governance by Roger Urwin and Gordon Clark. Their thinking formed and still forms a great source of inspiration. Roger very much likes to refer to the importance of “the soft stuff” of leadership and governance, which is so often overlooked in investing. In addition, Keith Ambachtsheer with his ongoing plea for the importance of strong pension fund governance has been a source of wisdom for us. Among other people that should be mentioned here is Ashby Monk, with whom Jaap had a conversation on the importance of trust that had a long-lasting impression on him. At PGGM and PFZW, important people for the development of his thinking have been Jean Frijns, as wise a board member as you'll ever see; Florent Vlak, the chair of the PFZW Investment Committee; and Else Bos, who made the connection between PGGM and the small group of inspiring best practice global asset owners.

Another source of inspiration for Alfred was serving as a trustee on the board of the pension fund for the general practitioners (SPH), where the board creates and fosters an environment to be the best they can for their participants, continuously raising the standards in investment governance to meet that goal. The importance of the “soft stuff” pragmatically could be seen at work in an energetic environment, which helped shape thinking on the role of boards and board room dynamics in this book.

We have benefited from numerous discussions with trustees giving courses or serving on pension funds' boards and investment committees, helping us to shape the ideas into the applicable frameworks that the reader finds throughout the book. We were also fortunate to discuss our research and ideas at several seminars and conferences. In particular, the International Centre for Pension Management (ICPM) provided a stimulating platform to discuss our ideas with the top professionals in the pension sector.

We would like to thank the many individuals who played important roles in producing this book. Charles Ellis inspired us to think long and hard about what the essence is within investment management from the perspective of a trustee. Sung Cheng Chih, Frank Fabozzi, Eduard van Gelderen, Knut Kjaer, Steve Lydenderg, Kasper Rozsbach and Jaco van der Walt reviewed the document and provided, despite their hectic time schedules, invaluable advice to make the book more relevant to trustees' needs.

Many board members, trustees and practitioners in the field have, without knowing it, inspired us with their insights and knowledge on investment governance, and have made a valuable contribution in keeping our ideas practical. A special mention goes to Marcel Andringa, Bart Bos, Wouter van Eechoud, David Iverson, Anne Gram, Jacco Heemskerk, Rob Heerkens, Jeroen van der Hoek, Fieke van der Lecq, Lionel Martellini, Jan Bertus Molenkamp, David Neal, Jan Overmeer, Jeroen Schreurs and Martijn Vos.

Peta Baxter and Caroline Studdert molded the draft into a readable and accessible book, while Nicole Rijnen and Corine Schriks helped us manage the project. We thank Samantha Hermans and Rubin Mehlhorn, who provided skillful research assistance. A special mention goes to Ruben Uijting who not only provided high quality research assistance, but also instilled sorely needed project management discipline, asked the critical questions at the right time, and prevented us from drifting off from time to time. Any pension fund aiming at achieving excellence should be glad to have him on board.

A final thank you goes to the editorial services of Wiley for their support of the book's copyediting needs.