"Board of Directors" is a singular (one board) compound noun that takes a singular verb.

Think of it as 'a special group' of directors. The group may be large or small.

Example: "The board is meeting this afternoon. (is= singular verb)

But when talking about 'the directors', they may be large or small, or of varying sizes!

Example: "The directors are meeting this afternoon." (are = plural verb)

COMPANY / CORPORATE LAW

A company has a Board of Directors. It is clearly singular. Therefore singular verbs and singular pronouns are used when referring to 'a board' or 'the Board' of Directors.

Examples of usage:

"The World Bank Group has four Boards of Directors. ... Each Board of Directors is responsible for the conduct of ..." -The World Bank

"The MCC Board of Directors is composed of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of ..." -Millennium Challenge Corporation, USA

"If the board of directors has judged that a member bank is performing or behaving poorly, it will report this to the Board of Governors." -WikiPedia - Federal Reserve System

"The exercise by the board of directors of its powers ..." -WikiPedia - Board of Directors

"The board of directors generally sets broad corporate policy ..." - FreeDictionary.com

NOTE that the verbs 'is', 'has', 'it', 'its' and 'sets' are all singular forms.

PLURAL

The plural of 'board of directors' is 'boards of directors / Boards of Directors"

Some directors may serve on a numbers of different Boardsof Directors, that is, they have directorships with more than one company.

EXAMPLES OF USAGE

Boards of Directors are responsible for ...
If boards of directors have judged ... they will report ...
The exercise by boards of directors of theirpowers ...
Boards of directors generally set broad corporate policy. etc

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