How do you deal with a mismatch of risk appetites with the board? What are some ways to increase, or temper, the board’s risk appetite if necessary?

Provide risk assessments reports, audit findings, benchmarks and incident history to show how the current or proposed risk posture is aligned (or not) with strategic goals or values of the company.

Uuuuh. This is an ironic one. I would flip the question if I were brought in as a consultant:

"As a Supervisory Board, how do you deal with a mismatch of risk appetite with management? What are some ways to decrease or temper the Board's risk appetite if necessary."

Or, more plainly: "How can we adjust our risk management function in the face of reckless management?"

After all, it's the Board's role to set the risk profile of the organisation and to protect the shareholder's interests, not to outsource it to management.

But OK, let's assume the world is upside down and the Board is just wrong on their risk stance, just for sake of argument.

If risk appetite is low (in management or in supervisory governance) then risk is reframed as opportunity cost with data, competitive analysis, and scenario planning.

If risk appetite is high, you attenuate it through systematic modeling failure states. Not fear-mongering but a rational mapping out of second and third order effects from the likely failure modes (poor execution, reputational damages, or technical debt).

Those strategies work in both directions. But if the direction is upward, then I agree with Stuart, one needs trust and partnership. Otherwise, management should influence shareholders to oust the Board. Where is the owner/shareholders? That's where the conversation would ideally start.

To wit, as a shareholder in some public companies, I definitely want some to rapidly pivot on AI. There are others where I am praying (and voting) they don't jump on an AI bandwagon. But in both cases I would absolutely not be pleased with my small ownership if management were the one's driving the conversation :-)

You need to establish and maintain a partnership...a progressive conversation where you use all opportunities (formal, informal) to advance your agenda, ensure literacy, bring awareness to emerging risks and opportunities...wherein you can elicit feedback and validate alignment / support / challenges. Avoid surprises at all costs!