NED MIG Panel Discussion; Chatham House Rules Apply
Key timings:
17.00 - 17.30 Registration
17.30 - 19.30 Programme
19.30 - 20.00 Drinks reception. Kindly sponsored by KPMG
O would some power the gift to give us to see ourselves as others see us. (Robert Burns)
The board should undertake a formal and rigorous annual evaluation of its own performance and that of its committees and individual directors. (FRC Code)
Judging by the comments of some former Board members, membership of the Board of HBOS appears to have been a positive experience for many participants. We are shocked and surprised that, even after the ship has run aground, so many of those who were on the bridge still seem so keen to congratulate themselves on their collective navigational skills. (Treasury Select Committee Report).
With 20/20 hindsight, commentators on the financial crisis, the BP Deepwater Horizon episode and other corporate disasters point the finger at what they see as ineffective boards. There is widespread scepticism that board self-assessment of performance is at all rigorous and leads to improvement action. Increasingly chairs are motivated to make use of external assessors to support effectiveness assessment and to implement appropriate action. However this helps only if the assessor - working with the chair and key players - brings to the process rigorous techniques, high personal skills and a very independent mind.
This event - aimed at chairs and NEDs and those who may become NEDs in the future - is an opportunity to discuss the challenge of stimulating performance improvement in board and committees and both individually and collectively.
Some of the issues to be covered include:• How to recognise that a chair may need external help? • How to choose the right assessment process and assessor for different contexts? • What are the benefits to an individual NED of a strong assessment process? • How to sustain a freshness of approach over time?
The event will be chaired by Anthony Hilton of the Evening Standard.
Speakers include Belinda Hudson, Joe MacHale, Nick Kirkland and Colin Mayer.
Anthony Hilton has received numerous industry awards for business journalism, including the Decade of Excellence and the Wincott Prize for Business Journalism in 2003. He regularly contributes to the London Evening Standard and the Independent on topics such as marketing, investor relations, pensions and economics.
Joe MacHale was a Non-Executive Director of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc from 2004, throughout the financial crisis until May 2013. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Huntsworth plc and its Senior Independent Director. He was a Non-Executive Director for Brit Insurance Holdings plc from 2005 until its sale to private equity interests in March 2011. He was a Non Executive Director of Morgan Crucible Co. PLC from 2003 to 2008 and its Senior Independent Non-Executive Director from 2006 to 2008. Joe also has extensive experience in the “not for profit” sector. He was a trustee and the Treasurer of Macmillan Cancer Support from 2001 to 2012, he is a trustee of the St. Lawrence Educational Trust and is Chairman of the Brendoncare Foundation
Colin Mayer is the Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies at Saïd Business School, and the former Peter Moores Dean of the School between 2006 and 2011. In February 2013 Oxford University Press published Colin’s book Firm Commitment: Why the Corporation is Failing Us and How to Restore Trust in It which explores the notion of commitment in corporations has been well received.
Belinda Hudson was previously a European Partner with Mercer Consulting Group, where she advised FTSE 100 and global private companies on remuneration and related corporate governance issues. Since joining Independent Audit about five years ago, she has become a recognised expert in board governance, with additional specialist expertise in the governance of remuneration.
Nick Kirkland is Chief Executive of successful international IT consultancy CIO Connect and has for 13 years acted as a non-executive director of The Children’s Mutual, latterly as senior independent director and as chairman. Before its transfer of engagements to Forester Life earlier this year, The Children’s Mutual was a major provider of financial services to families and particularly of Child Trust Fund products before these were withdrawn by government. Nick has considerable experience of implementing board and organizational change in the face of rapidly changing circumstances and of what is needed to sustain board effectiveness.