SLID holds webinar on enhancing effectiveness of the Board Secretary

The Board Secretaries Forum of The Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID) held a webinar on “Enhancing and Expanding the Effectiveness of the Board Secretary” recently. This Forum was created by SLID in collaboration with the Institute of Chartered Corporate Secretaries of Sri Lanka (ICCSSL) as part of its initiative to build and strengthen the role of Board Secretaries in both private and public sector organizations.

The Deputy President of ICCSSL and experienced Board Secretary, S. Sudarshan moderated an eminent panel comprising of Sunil Wijesinha, Chairman/Director of several listed companies, Ms. Christine Munasinghe, Company Secretary/MD of Secretaries & Investment Services (Pvt) Ltd, Faizal Salieh, Senior Vice Chairman of SLID and internationally acknowledged expert on Corporate Governance Phillip Armstrong who made the keynote address.

Delivering the keynotes, Philip Armstrong said that the role of the company secretary has evolved into a more complex role and the requirement in this modern era is for a competent professional who can guide and advise the Board across a wide range of important issues and not limited to ensuring adherence to corporate governance practices. He stated that the role is now evolving in to that of a governance professional which requires the corporate secretary to get to know the business and its different elements without focusing only on the functional role. He added that the Board Secretary can be described based on the hierarchy of functions starting from a limited role confined to the board room and a much wider role with responsibilities both in and outside of the board room, culminating at playing an influential governance professional’s role with an executive function across the company. He also said that these different roles require different competencies in order to be successful.

Referring to the characteristics of a good Board secretary in the role of a governance professional, Philip Armstrong said that it is crucial to engage and develop a relationship with Board members to understand their mindset and the company and not to just receive Board papers and push them through but to understand what is in them, in order to play an assertive role in ensuring that the Board gets what it needs and added that the Board secretary has a role in ensuring that a suitable balance is achieved.