WEBINARS

Hilary is a highly experienced audit committee chair. She will guide members through the role, proceedings and challenges of the audit committee, so they are better prepared to join such a committee.

ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) has become a critical area for companies and the institutions which invest in them, who increasingly apply these non-financial factors as part of their analysis process to identify material risks and growth opportunities. As a result, it is an area which directors of a wide range of organisations (and their lawyers!) need to understand in the context of sustainability, reputational risk and responsible environmental and social stewardship.

Rebecca is one of the leading advisers on ESG, supporting leading UK and global brands. She is a partner at the communications firm Hudson Sandler and the head of its ESG consultancy – HS Sustain. Under Rebecca’s leadership, Hudson Sandler Sustain specialises in ‘cutting through the noise’.

ESG is a broad and complex topic but this will be an event which will give members clear insights into this developing and critical area.

Awarded an OBE in 1996 for services to the Department of Trade and Industry and fêted with being on the Woman’s Hour power list, Jan Hall was for many years regarded as one of Britain’s leading headhunters.  She founded the highly successful JCA Group in 2005, having previously been a senior partner at Spencer Stuart.

In 2018 (after selling JCA to Heidrick & Struggles), Jan stepped away from direct headhunting to start her own consulting business, advising boards on strategic succession planning and performing Executive and Board Effectiveness Reviews, as well as coaching and supporting the development of top executive teams and boards.

Jan will give a unique perspective on the NED world, based on her experience as adviser to the leaders of many of the world’s major companies.  She will tell members what does and doesn’t work when approaching headhunters, what really happens to those CVs that are simply “filed in their databases”, and what candidates should read into the “you came a close second” messages.  One not to miss!

JUSTICE is the all-party law reform and human rights organisation, working to strengthen the UK justice system in all its guises.  Andrea has been the Director of JUSTICE for seven years, hugely instrumental in developing its role in shaping the UK legal landscape. She will talk about the contribution that lawyers can make to society and to the world around them, considering the skills required for this wider role and the opportunities for lawyers to make such a contribution.  Sitting on boards is one such opportunity!

Between 2002 and 2013 Andrea was Equality Lawyer and then Legal Director at INTERIGHTS (the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights) where she litigated key cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.  For a decade, Andrea trained lawyers and judges on international law and equality law in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Pacific, originally qualifying as a barrister and solicitor in Australia.

In October 2019, Andrea was appointed as a Lay Member of the Conduct Committee of the House of Lords.

Jonathan retired as Senior Partner and Executive Chair of Herbert Smith Freehills in 2015, and has since taken on a number of external appointments.  He has sought roles which would be “intellectually challenging” and “take him out of his comfort zone” as well as enabling him to “put something back”.  Does this resonate with what you’re after?  Members will learn a lot from hearing how Jonathan has gone about building his portfolio.

Jonathan is currently a non-executive director of The Competition and Markets Authority where he is interim chair, SID and chair of the audit committee.  He sits on the Press and Assessment Board of Cambridge University, chairing its Audit and Risk Committee and its The Regulatory and Compliance Committee, he is on the Development Committee of art gallery Kettles Yard, is Chairman of Governors of The Perse School in Cambridge and is a member of St Catharine’s College’s Remuneration Committee.  Previous roles include being a trustee of the Family Holiday Association and a trustee of the Gambling Commission, charged with the regulation of all gambling and gaming in the UK including The National Lottery. He also chaired The National Lottery Committee until April of this year.