The accounting problems at WHSmith’s US business have prompted regulatory scrutiny, leadership change and a renewed focus on financial controls. What does the episode tell boards about risk, oversight and corporate reporting?

High profile exits at Manchester United and Chelsea have thrown football’s governance into sharp relief. Under intense financial and reputational pressure, unclear roles, blurred oversight and weak challenge mechanisms can destabilise clubs. A new regulator raises baseline standards, but only disciplined governance behaviour and culture can keep organisations resilient.

In this comment piece, Kako Mavalla, Founder of the Black Excellence in Governance Awards (BEGA), explores why recent legislative changes and emerging data mark a positive step towards reducing the ethnicity pay gap, while emphasising that this is only part of the solution. He also highlights the critical role governance professionals play in driving meaningful, lasting progress.

With major reforms to corporate transparency on the horizon, governance professionals are key to helping businesses stay compliant

UK universities face intense scrutiny and financial strain. This blog examines how governance reform, anchored in the forthcoming revision of the CUC Higher Education Code of Governance, can strengthen assurance, clarify roles and rebuild confidence across a diverse sector.

This Halloween we examine two of the greatest horror movies of all time, to see how good practice governance could have helped to mitigate some of the worst fictional corporate disasters, as a bit of fun! While the examples are all fictional, there are certainly real-world lessons to be applied to these cases.

Risk is now a mainstream topic of conversation. In the past, risk was associated primarily with fast-moving innovative businesses (and with particular events such as product launches); but the UK’s risk landscape has changed radically in the last decade.

What are the key areas of risk upon which boards place the greatest of concern? In our latest Breaking down the Bellwether, we examine which risks are given the most attention in boardrooms.

A panel session at Governance 2024 highlighted that risk management is not the same as risk avoidance.