North West of England

This event took place on Tuesday 23 July 2024

Members joined us in a relaxing environment to informally meet and chat with others within the local CGIUKI network, have a coffee and share stories, skills, knowledge and expertise. Guests were also welcome.

The North West and East Midlands branches hosted a webinar to hear about Governance Hot Topics.

Peter Swabey took us through what he considers to be the latest hot topics for governance professionals, with time for Q&A at the end.

Speaker

Peter Swabey FCG, Policy and Research Director at the CGI UK & Ireland

Peter is responsible for developing CGIUKI’s profile by delivering thought leadership and lobbying campaigns aligned to CGIUKI strategy and promoting strong governance in organisations

This event took place on Wednesday 13 March 2024 at Black Sheep Coffee, Manchester.

Attendees joined us in a relaxing environment to informally meet and chat with others within the local CGIUKI network. They had a coffee and shared stories, skills, knowledge and expertise.

This event took pace on Wednesday 24 January 2024 at the EY offices, Manchester

We were joined by Mark Buckley, Implementation Lead – Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSP) at Companies House, who will provide an overview of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, including key timeframes and developments. We considered the changes firms should be implementing for a smooth transition to meet the requirements.

Speaker

Mark Buckley, Implementation Lead – Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSP), Companies House

Mark is responsible for delivering intelligence and enforcement outcomes and collaborating with enforcement partners throughout the UK.

This event took place on Wednesday 12 July 2023

Businesses are stepping up to grasp the ESG agenda. The number of UK companies making net zero carbon emission promises, for example, has multiplied rapidly following the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow. Meanwhile, regulation is evolving at pace too.

From corporate governance to sustainability reporting, national and supra-national regulators are making ever more demands. Increasingly, this regulation is focused on corporate structure, regarded as a lever for transformation. So much so that some organisations are having to reconsider complex and unwieldy structures, and rethink how they manage intricate reporting that spans the entire value chain.

General counsels and company secretaries are in the front line of the environmental, social and governance agenda. As ESG moves centre-stage for their organisations, more than two thirds of the legal and CoSec leaders expect their role to change in the context of ESG.

Therefore, we looked at the G of the ESG in this section and how the G impact the CoSec day to day role.

Speakers

Matt Timmons, Partner, PwC

Matt is PwC UK Legal’s ESG Leader and sits on the Global Legal ESG leadership team. He leads a number of global regulatory and compliance projects.

He has experience of working with US multinationals and has led a number of governance projects for US multinationals in view of key regulatory changes in the UK.

Some of Matt’s other clients include FTSE 100, large global private business and US Fortune 500 companies. Matt is currently leading legal and regulatory teams to support a number of Fortune Global 500 clients assess the impact of EU CSRD and develop a roadmap for implementation.

Matt is a member of PwC’s Global CSRD competency centre and sits on a number PwC Global ESG steering committees for our Tax, Legal and People business.

Jade Hobbs, Senior Manager, PwC

Jade has work on a number of ESG projects relating to the governance aspects of UK Mandatory Climate Disclosure and advising FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 clients on how the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will apply to the legal entities in their group and the implications of CSRD from a subsidiary governance perspective.

Jade has extensive corporate governance experience and has assisted clients with reviewing their existing governance frameworks and advising areas for improvements to align the group with regulations, best practice and the desired governance maturity level. Jade often works as part of a multidisciplinary team of governance, tax and risk specialists to ensure the governance structures are practical and aligned to the operating model and tax structure of the group.

This event took place on Thursday 16 March 2023

All students in the North West were invited to attend this first virtual student networking event of 2023.

Following a well-received careers-based event in July 2022, we were delighted to welcome back Henry Rymer from The Core Partnership, a specialist recruiter for Company Secretary, Governance and Compliance roles, to the event. Henry will be speaking to provide an overview of the current market for governance roles (both nationally and in the North West), and to give an overview of the variety of roles and sectors available to a budding governance professional.

We also heard once again from Kate Russell from the University of Law to hear about her experiences of teaching governance in an academic setting.

The event will also provide an opportunity for students to have a say about the format and topics for future student events.

This event took place on Tuesday 6 December 2022

Employee ownership offers a unique opportunity for businesses to harness the talent and commitment of their staff, with employee-owned businesses tending to be more successful, competitive, profitable, and sustainable.

Both the number of employee-owned businesses in the UK– and the economic contribution that they make - is significant and growing.

The CGIUKI North West branch would like to invite you to a discussion of the distinctive features of this governance model and the role that a company secretary can play in its development.

Speakers

Simon Blackburn, Deputy Company Secretary, John Lewis Partnership

Simon is a chartered governance professional and leads the team responsible for corporate governance at the UK’s largest employee-owned business. In his governance career, he has worked at the Pension Protection Fund and at Company Matters, and prior to that, has held roles with the Bank of England and in both Houses of Parliament.

Stephen Hadlow, Corporate Partner, Brabners LLP

Stephen is an experienced corporate lawyer who advises businesses, their shareholders and management teams, across a wide range of transactions. He is actively involved in structuring business transitions to employee ownership and is closely affiliated with the Employee Ownership Association.

Muriel Thorne, Co-founder & Director, Oakwood Corporate Services

Muriel is an experienced chartered secretary and Fellow of the CGI. As a co-founder of Oakwood, she implemented transition of the business to an employee ownership governance model – and continues to act as a director and company secretary of the company, and trustee of the Oakwood Employee Ownership Trust.

This event took place on Tuesday 11 October 2022

“I wish I knew then what I know now!” - a workshop session reflecting on some of the smart skills gained from the successes (and disappointments) of a 28-year career as a company secretary and general counsel in a public company.

We provided tips on raising your profile including: developing more effective relationships with your board & management team; successfully managing (unrealistic) expectations; and being seen as a trusted adviser to invest in.

Speaker

John Constantin FCG, Retired Company Secretary and General Counsel

A qualified Company Secretary, an experienced General Counsel and trusted board adviser. Over 28 years’ experience of working within a listed company environment at GB Group plc (GBG) leading the Group’s Governance, Legal and Data Privacy/Compliance functions – growing the team’s cohort of in-house professionals from a core of 3 people based in Chester to 36 team members based in UK, USA and APAC.

Original member of the C-Suite that saw GBG become a successful and truly global, market-leading PLC where market capitalisation increased from £5m to £1.7bn and the Group’s team grew from 100 based in Chester UK to over 1,000 operating out of 16 countries.

This event took place on Tuesday 26 July 2022

Attendees joined us in a relaxing environment to informally meet and chat with others within the local CGI network. They had a coffee and share stories, skills, knowledge, and expertise.

This event took place on Monday 13 September 2021.

This round table discussed the life of a governance professional in different sectors. We had a number of speakers talking about their experiences across a variety of sectors and industries.