From the Boardroom to the Quantum Frontier: What Faye Wattleton Wants Corporate Directors to Understand About Governance in the Age of AI
CHICAGO, July 29, 2026– Faye Wattleton, the youngest, first African American, and longest-serving president in Planned Parenthood’s history, has spent her second act on corporate boards and, more recently, as co-founder, EVP, and board member of quantum computing company EeroQ. In a recent conversation with WSJ’s Poppy Harlow, she argues that boardrooms failed to do the hard thinking before AI’s explosive rise, and that quantum computing offers a chance to do better: to ask bigger questions about access, equity, and long-term impact rather than treating governance as a once-a-year formality. Read the full interview below.
POPPY: You have since served on more than 30 boards, and you co-founded a quantum computing company. It’s a second act that speaks to intellectual curiosity. What have those very different worlds taught you about this moment when AI is upending the world as we knew it?
FAYE: That is a question every enterprise should ask. Is the governance process being executed responsibly? The technical challenge can be intimidating. I’m not a physicist. Nor am I a computer scientist. So why am I qualified to co-found a technology company and to serve as a director? How am I qualified to ask the right questions? Regardless of the technology, enterprises emerge in a diverse world, with potential impact beyond physics and engineering laboratories. There are far more governance commonalities than differences among enterprises. A big picture vision and the implications for opportunities, challenges, and impact are fundamental. This obligation cannot be fulfilled without asking the big picture questions. However, more than ever before, the potential impact of the technologies of the future demand independent thinking inside and outside the circles of technical development. No place is this more important than in the boardroom.
POPPY: Many technology leaders—from Sundar Pichai to Satya Nadella—have suggested quantum computing could become the next great computing platform, with Pichai saying, “Quantum is where AI was five years ago.” As a co-founder of a quantum computing company and serving on the board of it, what should corporate directors be paying attention to today?
FAYE: We should listen and learn from the governance lessons of the still-emerging AI revolution. The obligation to the environment is complex and requires deeper probing for understanding and vision. It should start in the boardroom. Engaging leadership from diverse sectors in the exploration of governance models for technology enterprises is well overdue. How will emerging technologies impact our children’s education and prepare them to access knowledge akin to the level of a revolution? Is the governance vision to elevate the quality of life for the planet, or only a selection, through the randomness of birth or geography? I’m not saying that it’s the board’s responsibility to pick up their computers and appear at every school board meeting or congressional hearing. But it is governance to engage the big picture policy questions.
Enterprise vision and leadership, upholding standards of responsibility, on par with profitability, should start in the boardroom. Evidence of broad boardroom pre-thinking did not precede the hockey stick explosion of AI. We should do better with quantum.
POPPY: What does an effective board of the future look and feel like in your mind?
FAYE: Given the massive revolution in knowledge and access thereto, I hope the board of the future will not consist of a cluster of one’s golf buddies or C-suite dwellers. The future already demands external, as well as diligent, internal homework. It’s delusional to conclude that strong governance can be executed solely in the relatively few hours that boards meet a few times a year. The big picture does and will require independent external environmental scanning. Do we really see what is at stake and how we execute governance that will have generational impact? Where might the black swans lurk? It’s no longer a question of whether.
POPPY: You took over Planned Parenthood at just 34. You were the youngest president in its history, the first Black president, so far the longest serving president, and the first woman to hold the role since Margaret Sanger. How did that leadership experience shape your career and the many roles you have led since?
FAYE: I come to quantum unintimidated because of my personal and professional foundation and the good fortune of broadly diverse leadership opportunities. We make a mistake when we do not accurately assess the complexity and diversity of what is necessary for visionary corporate governance leadership. Especially in the age of a revolution. Personal development and professional experiences mitigate reticence about expressing my opinions. I have also learned that sometimes we want to be more friends than effective governance practitioners. I am not suggesting the role of a board director is to agitate. But sometimes we need to say things that some would prefer to leave unsaid, leaving a hole in our governance responsibilities. Asking the tough questions is essential.
POPPY: You trained first as a nurse and nurse-midwife, and your advocacy grew out of that experience and being the daughter of a minister. What have you learned about the difference between holding strong convictions and remaining open-minded?
FAYE: Well, for sure, I’m sometimes not the most popular in the boardroom. I somehow just can’t escape a sense of obligation to fight for what I believe to be the right thing to do. Harder still, remaining open-minded, when I strongly think that governance leadership is being smothered by corporate details. When all is said and done on profitability, how do we define a shared vision and execute toward a better world? The board’s fundamental obligation is not just to monitor details. All of our experiences in the boardroom should be brought to bear on a world that is changing as rapidly as it is.