The Role of the Company Secretary - Part One

Victoria was Head of Subsidiary Governance at Aviva plc (FTSE 100), a composite insurer covering a range of insurance from life cover through to pet insurance. Victoria started at Aviva within their Life and Pensions business, a role that was extended to also include Secretariat support for the General Insurance business, before being asked to lead the global group-wide function overseeing the application of governance practices across the group. Prior to joining Aviva, Victoria was the Company Secretary for Canada Life Group, the UK Division of The Great-West Life Co, a Canadian financial services group listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Previously she worked at Music Sale Group, a global music publisher as their Company Secretary. Victoria has been a Trustee of a large Company Pension Scheme, a hybrid defined benefits and defined contribution scheme, during her role as a trustee the scheme underwent a triennial valuation and a detailed project on investment options. Victoria is dynamic, versatile and commercially focused, with significant and broad knowledge of Company Secretarial and Governance functions spanning financial services and the media sector. Victoria was named as one of Diligent Corporation’s Modern Governance ambassadors in 2019 and 2020.

Monique has over 15 years’ experience in the governance field. She was Company Secretary at Telford Homes Ltd (Previously AIM Listed), one of London’s leading developers, with a focus on designing and constructing high quality developments across the capital and beyond. A role that was extended, following the take-over of Telford Homes by CBRE Group, Inc. to also include risk and compliance for the Telford group companies as well as global compliance project work for the CBRE group. Prior to joining Telford Homes, Monique was Assistant company Secretary at Booker Group Plc (FTSE 250 Retail company) and prior to that RSA Insurance Group Plc (FTSE 100 Financial Services), and Dixons Carphone Plc (FTSE 250 Retail company). Monique was part of the company secretarial team during the merger of Dixons Retail and Carphone Warehouse Group with sole responsibility for the crystallisation of the Dixons Retail discretionary and all employee share schemes locally and across Europe. She was also part of the team during the Booker and Tesco merger and responsible for the crystallisation and/or transfer of the Booker employee share schemes amongst other governance matters. Whilst Company Secretary of Telford Homes Plc the group was taken over by CBRE Group, Inc. An American commercial real estate services and investment firm with more than 115,000 professionals in over 100 countries. Following the take-over, she continued to work as Company Secretary for the Telford group of companies and took on the additional role of risk and compliance officer for Telford Homes as well as supporting the CBRE Global compliance team on various projects. Monique has extensive experience working in company secretarial and governance functions, as well as merger and acquisition transactions and post-merger integration across various sectors.