- 27 October 2026
Read time: 4 minutes
Summary: Dan Caunt is Group Company Secretary and General Counsel at Admiral Group plc. In 2025, his team won Team of the Year at the CGI Awards. In this comment blog, he shares some of the secrets to their success.
Recognition means a lot when your best work often happens behind the scenes. As the Group Company Secretary and General Counsel at Admiral Group plc, I lead our 13-person Company Secretary team. We support governance across the Admiral Group, from the plc Board and its Committees to our subsidiary companies and international operations. It brings together people with different professional backgrounds, skills and experiences, united by a strong shared identity and a reputation for getting things done. We cover Board and Committee governance, corporate reporting, shareholder matters, entity governance, strategic transactions, corporate actions and wider governance improvement.
Build strong internal relationships
I describe our approach as governance with humanity. Governance is ultimately about people, relationships and trust, and that human element has been central to our success. Being awarded Team of the Year at the CGI Awards recognised the broad scope of work the team cover, but it also acknowledged the way we work as a team. Technical excellence and a strong, people-focused culture go hand in hand. Company secretaries aren’t necessarily inclined to shout about their achievements, so recognition is appreciated all the more when it comes.
Much of our success as a team has been built over time through consistent delivery, practical advice and a genuine effort to understand the business. People need to know that when they come to you with a problem, you’ll help them work through it rather than simply explain why something can’t be done. It’s also important to explain the purpose behind a governance process. We shouldn’t hide behind rules or technical language. People are far more likely to engage positively when they understand what the process is intended to protect or enable.
Creating strong relationships across the organisation starts with strong relationships within the team. Our weekly meetings illustrate this. We cover many of the usual suspects, including plc and subsidiary work, upcoming priorities, governance developments, AI and future planning. But, we also find time to talk about our lives, wellbeing, weekends, and holidays, as well as swapping TV and podcast recommendations. It may not all look like governance on the agenda, but it helps create trust and connection that make the work possible.
The culture we have developed keeps us connected in a hybrid working environment and helps create genuine relationships. Everyone has their own responsibilities, but there is also a strong sense of collective ownership. People share knowledge, step in when help is needed and care about the quality and reputation of the team as a whole.
Focus on enabling decisions, not just compliance
While traditional governance and compliance responsibilities remain essential, modern governance teams act as trusted advisers, organisational connectors and facilitators of good decision-making. We’ve seen that at Admiral through major strategic activity, including acquisitions, disposals and the Group’s first share buyback programme. In situations like these, our role as governance professionals isn’t simply to record decisions once they’ve been made. It’s to help make sure the right people are involved, the right information reaches the right forum, appropriate challenge takes place and accountability for implementation is clear. Good governance should improve the quality of decision-making, not just document it.
Combine technical excellence with commercial judgement
Technical knowledge is fundamental, but knowing the rules is only part of the job. A successful governance team needs to understand how to apply those rules proportionately and commercially. Being able to understand when something needs escalating, when constructive challenge is required, or when the right answer is to simplify rather than add another process is an invaluable skill.
I believe the best governance teams combine rigour with pragmatism and advice with delivery. They are reliable, clear, curious and commercially aware. They get the fundamentals right consistently, but they don’t allow process to become an end in itself. As a team, credibility is built as much through the everyday work as it is through those one-off high-profile corporate transactions. That is what really makes for a successful governance team.
Find out more about CGI Awards.