The board set you targets. The targets had dates. The dates arrived carrying the targets, which remained conspicuously unmet. In transformation, as in budgets, "nearly" is a complete sentence and it means "no". Two review cycles of missed commitments is, it turns out, the precise amount of patience a board possesses. They have decided to find someone for whom a deadline is a date rather than a suggestion.
"We need delivery, not narrative." — The Chair, closing the meeting early