FBC Digital Meeting: Evaluating Fund Board Effectiveness
23 April 2024, 2-3pm UK time
As the regulatory demands on fund board directors continue to grow, how can fund boards reassure themselves that they are operating as effectively as possible?
In this FBC Digital Meeting, we explored how firms evaluate the performance of their boards.
The discussion looked at the value of board reviews as a means of assessing board operations, the nature and scope of these reviews, who’s involved and how the outputs are used. We also shared initial insights from FBC’s detailed research in this area and spoke to two senior governance professionals who provided their perspectives and examples of good practice when it comes to evaluating board effectiveness UK, Ireland and Luxembourg.
Chaired by FBC Managing Director, Catherine Battershill, the meeting was available exclusively to FBC Corporate Members and provided fund board chairs, company secretaries and other governance professionals with valuable insights to help inform their own approaches to reviewing their fund boards.
Contributors
I am the independent non-executive chair of First Sentier Investors (UK) Funds Ltd and an INED at The Pension SuperFund where I sit on the Holdings and Sponsor boards. I am also a NED at the Railway Benefit Fund, a registered charity. I was a NED at GO Investment Partners LLP for ten years to 2022, and chair in 2022. Prior to this, I was a non-executive director of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (2014 – 2018) and, from 2015 – 2017, was chair of the Association’s Defined Benefit Council.
From 2004 to 2015 I worked at RAILPEN, initially as Finance Director and subsequently as Managing Director, Investments, supporting the trustee of the multi-employer rail industry pension schemes. I oversaw the investment business stream of RAILPEN, with assets under management at that time of over £20 billion. Before joining RAILPEN, I held a number of finance director posts in the transport sector. (this sentence is just moved from the very end)
I am a chartered accountant and hold a Commerce degree.
Daniel Rotherford is an investment professional with over 20 years of experience, currently serving as Global Head of Product Management & Governance at HSBC Global Asset Management.
Daniel is responsible for all aspects of the Product Lifecycle process within the asset management business including fund launches, regulatory documentation management, internal governance and Fund Board management. His remit covers both cross border (Lux & Ireland) as well as locally domiciled ranges in Europe and Asia, including both open and closed ended structures.
Previously Daniel work at Barings and LGIM in Product and Governance roles. His responsibilities covered areas of governance, product development, strategy and product management. His experience spans across equity, fixed income, multi-asset, alternatives and property asset classes.
Senior Research Adviser, Fund Boards Council
Elizabeth is a researcher and consultant with over 15 years of experience and a background in digital workplace strategy and communication. She works across business and academic research fields, undertaking varied research projects employing a wide range of techniques and writing both industry and journal papers. Working with corporate organisations in the UK and US, as well as professional membership bodies, she also engages in assessment and benchmarking exercises, as well as workshop facilitation and conference speaking.
With an MSc in Psychology, Elizabeth is undertaking part-time doctoral research at the University of Nottingham on the well-being of workers in modern digital workplace contexts. Her research intersects with her workplace mindfulness teaching, which she has been doing since 2019.
Catherine Battershill is the Managing Director of Fund Boards Council. She has over 15 years of experience of marketing and communications in asset management in Europe and Asia. During the course of her career, Catherine has led regional marketing and communications initiatives across major institutional and wholesale retail markets and overseen the development of an international thought-leadership programme for a leading multi-national asset manager.
Catherine has held voluntary board roles in education and a children’s charity, through which she has developed a strong interest in governance topics. This, combined with her asset management background, led her to join Shiv in setting up Fund Boards Council.
