Company secretaries are often the most experienced
boardroom participants. However, they seldom become board directors
in their own capacity
There is a vast untapped source of boardroom talent and for most
public sector and private sector company boards it’s
literally sitting amongst them: company secretaries are often the
most experienced boardroom participants and yet rarely do they
become board directors in their own right.
This insight struck me whilst attending a roundtable discussion
hosted by The Chartered Governance Institute with company
secretaries from a host of leading FTSE 100 and FTSE 250
organisations. The quality of the people and clarity of the
thinking around the table was extraordinary. They simply oozed the
experience and scars that only those who have sat in boardrooms
navigating a kaleidoscopic range of scenarios over decades have.
Each had served as apprentices and the right arms to both great
chairs and terrible ones, learning from them all:
