Carillion has entered the pantheon of cursed companies following its recent failure. Politicians and the media have worked themselves in another fit of righteous indignation about greedy management and incompetent boards. The search is out for people to blame, shame and even prosecute. Regulators, sensing the flow of the political wind, are climbing on the bandwagon and looking for blood. Non-executive directors are reasonably enough feeling...
You’ve done your due diligence, you’re happy with the company and you’ve received a Letter of Appointment to become an NED. After a modest (it is only a non- exec after all) celebration, sit down and look carefully at what’s in the detail of the Offer before you accept it. 1. Time commitment: The Letter will say to which committees you have been appointed and the fee payable. Most public companies will pay a fee for chairing a committee. You...
I gave a nervous laugh. The headhunter had just suggested that I could start my non-executive career by joining Northern Rock. Why would I want to join the board of a bank suffering a run, the first British bank for over a hundred years to experience one? NED appointments are not for life, but they are generally expected to last two terms of three years, and any less will leave you permanently having to explain why not. You can’t easily take...
I’ve sat through many NED interviews, on both sides of the table, learning a lot about how they work and how to conduct them. I have not yet discovered the secret to identifying the ideal NED director nor to getting selected myself every time. Here are a few notes, however, to help first time candidates get the feel of what to expect. An NED interview is not like an executive one. The focus is not whether you can do the job, but about whether...
Corporate Governance
Economics
Notes From A NED