08:30

Registration

09:20

Welcome from Thomson Reuters

  • Amanda Cantwell Senior Editor, Practical Law - Corporate, Thomson Reuters

09:25

Chair’s Keynote

09:30

Corporate Governance

  • Articulating value
  • Government responses to Green Paper on governance reform
  • Possible extension of the UK Corporate Governance Code to private companies

10:45

Morning Break

11:15

Board Effectiveness, Evaluation and Culture

  • Encouraging informal evaluation and review
  • Board minutes – as an accurate record of directors’ meetings versus pressure from regulators to record more detailed discussion and challenge from NEDs.
  • Helping the chair/board to identify and mitigate risk

12:45

Lunch

13:30

Breakout options

Breakout option 1: GDPR Implementation

With just under a year to go to the GDPR  implementation deadline we will be considering:

  • The essential aspects of a GDPR implementation programme and what steps you need to be taken now
  • Guidance so far from the regulators and regulatory focus post-implementation
  • Key challenges and potential solutions
  • Louis Cooper Chief Executive, Non-Executive Directors’ Association
  • Alison Deighton Partner & Head of Data Protection & Privacy Team, TLT Solicitors

Breakout option 2: Gender Pay Gap Reporting

  • What do employers have to do to comply with the regulations?
  • Tricky areas in practice – identifying elements of pay and marshalling the data
  • Who enforces the GPG regulations?
  • Best practice reporting – existing examples from employers and trade unions
  • Practical measure and steps that employers can take to narrow the gender pay gap

14:20

Breakout options

Breakout option 1: PSC: beneficial ownership regime and 4MLD: pitfalls and challenges

  • PSCs – areas causing difficulty one year on
  • Are you ready for the changes to the [PSC] regime?
  • How 4MLD changes the current regime
  • Key changes for an Issuer to consider
  • Jai Baker Head of Industry, Capita Asset Services
  • Diane Penfold Senior Manager Company Secretarial Services, Capita

Breakout option 2: Managing overseas and subsidiary company governance in a group framework

15:10

Afternoon Break

15:20

Modern Slavery Act

Modern Slavery Act: Understanding your and your company’s responsibilities

  • Practical steps for businesses; policies, processes, contract terms, training
  • Top-down values framework
  • Get the basics right
  • What’s the politics behind this – where has this regulation come from and where is it going?
  • What the regulator wants to see: Be Genuine, Transparent and show Direction of Travel.
  • How to do that in practice
  • Specsavers case study

16:10

Technology

  • The current state of play with technology
  • The problems we see
  • Trends in emerging technology
  • Impact for Directors
  • Impact for Company Secretary role

Chair’s closing words

17:00

Networking and drinks

Please note the agenda is subject to change*

The page will be updated with further details on the agenda once they are confirmed.