As companies seek to gird their reputations, boards are looking for new directors with deep corporate affairs backgrounds to help them oversee and safeguard an intangible asset that can swiftly erode.

A short list of corporate affairs experts who have ascended to boardrooms in recent years includes Dee Dee Myers, the former Clinton administration White House press secretary who went to Wynn Resorts; AnnaMaria DeSalva, the chairman and CEO of public relations firm Hill+Knowlton Strategies, who serves on the board of XPO Logistics; and Beatriz Perez, Coca-Cola’s chief communications and chief sustainability officer, who joined the board of W.W. Grainger. In fact, at least a dozen S&P 500 companies and New York Stock Exchange-traded companies show director biographies with current or retired corporate affairs experience. That’s according to public company intelligence provider MyLogIQ and SEC filings.