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    ICGN'15: AGM summary

    Conferences Governance Performance
    If you are anything like me, Annual General Meetings do not normally feature as compelling events in your calendar. AGMs are often boring sequences of compliance-oriented voting, with little if any inspirational or aspirational commentary. Most of the time, I give AGMs a wide berth. However, as a new ICGN member, I decided to attend the AGM to hear the discussion, and I'm pleased for the experience. The chairman, Erik Breen ran a good meeting and every resolution was carried.
    On first contact, the ICGN feels like 'just another' corporate governance body. However, having listened through the AGM, I was pleasantly surprised to find:
    • ICGN is a genuinely international network of like-minded professionals, the usage of network (cf. organisation) being intentional
    • The multi-national context of ICGN provides opportunities to engage regionally- and nationally-based entities in discussions in ways that would not otherwise be possible
    • That ICGN has a  clearly defined (and annunciated) aim, which is to influence (policy), communicate (networking) and inform (provide guidance and education)
    While the ICGN was birthed out of the investor community (53% of the membership today is from this community) to support multi-national investment activity, a trend away from investor dominance is readily apparent. The organisation has a clearly stated goal of reducing the dominance of the investor membership increasing corporate and individual membership. 
    One minor disappointment was that there was little mention of individual directors during the AGM. Rather, the focus was on the investor/advisor community—indicative language being 'investors', 'advisors' and 'the company'. This led me to wonder about the ICGN's commitment to championing the task of directing and to holding directors accountable for doing their job properly.
    The outgoing deputy chairman and finance committee chairman, Frank Curtiss, was recognised for his significant contribution of many years. Anne Simpson received the ICGN Award having been nominated by Sir Adrian Cadbury and Nell Minnow amongst others. This very popular decision was well received by the assembled membership.
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    ICGN'15: integrated reporting update

    Accountability Conferences Governance
    The 20th ICGN conference is underway. While the annual meeting and official welcome signalled the start of the conference, ICGN committee meetings and lunchtime panel discussions were scheduled, to fit everything into the thee-day window. Claudia Kruse chaired a very interesting lunchtime panel discussion on integrated reporting. The IIRC's Corporate Reporting Dialogue (CRD) was launched twelve months ago, and it was the panel's purpose to discuss the progress made and to solicit feedback from the gathered members.
    ICGN has bee an active proponent of 'tidying up' reporting. The aim of integrated reporting is to provide a representative view of how the company is actually performing. After a brief summary provided by the panel, the time was turned over to attendees, to ask questions and discussion:
    • The panel acknowledged the perennial chestnut, of who wants IR was briefly mentioned. Panel members indicated a dichotomy exists whereby some think IR is an investor-led initiative, and others think it is (or should be) management-led. While the question was not opened fully, I found the possibility that any group other than the shareholders or the board might initiate anything. Yet boards hardly rated a mention during the entire conversation. This, despite the board being a proxy representative of shareholders!
    • I found it interesting that 'value creation' was offered as a key driver for integrated reporting, and that "proper reporting leads to better corporate governance". Really?
    While I am a strident fan of transparency and straightforward reporting, I couldn't help but think that the approach the IIRC and ICGN is following has missed the boat somewhat. Integrated reporting has been conceptualised as being management-led activity, and that "proper reporting leads to better corporate governance. Yet the elephant in the room (if I can mix metaphors) is that integrated reported has been conceptualised by the ICGN team as being a management activity. The board was mentioned rarely during the entire panel discussion, even though the board is supposed to be accountable for company performance. Another challenge for the ICGN working group is that the focus is almost entirely on publicly-listed companies. I asked the question and, for my troubles, may have 'volunteered' to working out if and how integrated reporting might apply in a privately-held company context. 
    Notwithstanding these challenges, the fact the ICGN is asking the question and looking for ways to bridge between the different reporting requirements of different jurisdictions is good, really good. I look forward to future updates and, possibly, to contributing the the 'privately-held' part of the discussion.
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    International Corporate Governance Network: Annual conference starts today!

    Conferences Leadership Research
    I have arrived in London ahead of the International Corporate Governance Network conference which starts today. The organisers have prepared a full three-day programme (agenda here), based at Guildhall (an historic building in central London).  Further details are available here.
    I'll post summaries here during the conference. Please contact me if you'd like to meet up during the conference, or if you want to know about a particular presentation.
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    Pausing to celebrate two important milestones

    Governance Phd Research Research Update
    Picture
    May 31 is an important day on our family calendar: This year doubly so. It's our daughter's birthday (our youngest reached the ripe old age of 21 this year). We hosted a luncheon for her and several of her friends. Gifts were given and stories were told. We had a great time together. The 'doubly so' part is that I finished writing up my doctoral thesis! Some three-and-a-quarter years after setting out (to discover how boards influence business performance), the main output of the doctoral research process, the thesis dissertation, is complete and ready to be examined.
    Four copies of the 336-page tome have been printed and bound, and the associated 'submission' paperwork has been signed. Will the thesis dissertation be good enough? I hope so, but only the examiners can answer that question.
    Where to from here? Today I will rest, to start dissipating the intensity of the final ten days of the write-up and to 'change gear' (from writing to meeting people). I am en route to London, ahead of three exciting corporate governance conferences—two of which I have the honour of addressing. Tomorrow I will start preparing presentations and thinking about the future.
    Thank you to everyone who has provided support and offered encouragement in recent weeks. The focus on the write-up process has been total. I appreciate your comments—deeply.
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    EURAM: conference programme now available online

    Conferences Governance Management Phd Research
    The 15th European Academy of Management (EURAM) annual conference will be held in Warsaw, Poland on 17–20 June. The conference programme is now available online. Over 1200 delegates have registered to attend, to hear about the latest developments in management research and the implications for practice.
    I am looking forward to attending what promises to be a very interesting (and busy!) conference. EURAM is the third of three international conferences that I will be attending in June. In addition to listening to as many of the corporate governance papers as possible and meeting with colleagues, I have two formal commitments, as follows:
    • Chair the second corporate governance session, entitled Boards of Directors: Outside/Non-executive directors, on Thu 18 June.
    • Present my paper, entitled Boards, strategy and business performance: Observations from inside the boardroom, in the afternoon session on Thu 18 June.
    If you would like to receive more information about any of the papers, please let me know. I will do my best to attend the appropriate session and write a report.
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    International Corporate Governance Network: Annual Conference

    Conferences Governance Performance Research
    The 2015 edition of the International Corporate Governance Network annual conference is just a week away (3–5 June). This year, ICGN will be celebrating 20 years of governance change and reform. Hosted by the City of London, the conference is being held at the historic Guildhall. The organisers have assembled a fantastic programme. Over 650 delegates have registered to hear 80 speakers discuss a wide range of topics:
    • Sustainable capital market reform: what needs to be done?
    • The board of the future: will it be fit for purpose?
    • Share ownership in a global context—is stewardship working?
    • Human rights: what are investors expected to know and do
    • Driving accountability across the voting chain
    I will be at the conference (as a delegate only this year). Summary reports will be posted here, so please check back next week for updates. If you want to meet up at the conference, contact me to make an arrangement.
    The ICGN annual conference is the first of three conferences that I'm attending in June. I will also be at the International Governance Workshop (11–12th, Barcelona, Spain) and the European Academy of Management conference (17–20th, Warsaw, Poland), to present the latest findings of my research and discuss implications for boards. Copies of my papers are now available.