Corporate governance structures around the world are evolving, and there has been an increasing interest in the board leadership position, particularly the role of the chairperson of the board. Given that board leadership is experiencing changing roles and demands, the time is ripe to take stock of existing knowledge in order gain a comprehensive overview of the field and to identify promising avenues for future research. Reviewing 134 academic articles published in 49 journals from 1985 to 2017, this paper explores the role of the chairperson of the board. We identify five research streams and discuss the current trends concerning the board chair position. Following this, we offer a research agenda designed to contribute to and extend our current theoretical and empirical understanding of the board chair position.