Small Listed Companies Group

This event took place on Wednesday 23 November 2022

The presentation slides are available here.

The Better Business Act proposes to strengthen the existing s172 duties to legally oblige companies to operate in a manner that benefits a variety of stakeholders, whilst still delivering profits to shareholders. The proposals are already receiving support from a number of high profile organisations.

This webinar outlined the new legal framework which the Act would introduce and provided an opportunity to debate the implications for boards and governance professionals, and to consider, with ESG considerations already high on many boards’ agendas, why changes to the existing regime are considered necessary.

Our speakers for this event were Mhairi Littlewood, Campaign Manager, Better Business Act, and Bernadette Young, Director and Co-founder of Indigo: Independent Governance

Mhairi Littlewood is Campaign Manager for the Better Business Act, a campaign run by B Lab UK. Before joining B Lab UK, Mhairi worked in the Civil Service, at Big Issue Invest and at the education charity Teach First. She studied law at Bristol University then did Teach First's training programme, gaining a PGCE and teaching English at a secondary school in the North East of England.

Bernadette Young, FCG is director and co-founder of Indigo: Independent Governance, a consultancy she established in 2005 specialising in company secretarial services and corporate governance advice. She is a qualified chartered governance professional and company secretary with 30 years’ experience, including time spent in in-house roles as Deputy Group Secretary of listed insurer, RSA, Company Secretary of Royal London Asset Management and Company Secretary of McColl’s Retail Group. Bernadette has spoken at various events, is a regular contributor to Governance + Compliance magazine and authored ICSA’s Corporate Governance Handbook.