South African-based and internationally recognised corporate governance authority Mervyn King (left) is back in New Zealand this month as guest of the Sheffield Academy of Corporate Governance. He will speak to Sheffield and Institute of Directors sponsored functions in Auckland (May 8), Wellington (May 14) and Christchurch (May 6) on ‘Good Governance Simplified’.
Compliance with the quantitative corporate governance guidelines doesn’t necessarily deliver good governance. Corporate scandals have produced more rules and guidelines, like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US or the British Higgs Report. But how do directors deliver good governance from the mire of rules and guidelines and under the spotlight of media scrutiny? King argues that it can be done by applying some simple business procedures and he’s out here to share them.
King is former judge of the South African Supreme Court and currently chairman of Brait South Africa and other major companies and organisations. He is also immediate past president of the Commonwealth Association of Corporate Governance and member of the private sector advisory group to the World Bank on corporate governance.
Boards that get the balance between executive and non-executive directors right and who understand the other, often new, elements of good governance, will do well, he told Management magazine when he visited New Zealand last year. “But if boards get weighed down on confirming rather than performing they will fail,” he warned.
