Mark Goyder

Mark Goyder is the founder of Tomorrow’s Company, an independent think tank which he established in 1996 to inspire and enable business to be a force for good in society. He is also Senior Advisor to the Board Intelligence Think Tank.

He is the co-author, of Entrusted – stewardship for responsible wealth creation, published by World Scientific in Singapore and London in the October 2019. The book is the result of collaboration with his co-author, Ong Boon Hwee, CEO of Stewardship Asia. It combines the experience of East and West, arguing that ‘we need a better form of capitalism, one which, while promoting competition, is there to serve and not dominate; to respect human beings and not exploit them; to nurture our surrounding environment, and not destroy it.’ The book sets out a vision and agenda for stewardship steps that ordinary savers, pension funds, investment institutions, company boards, CEOs and governments can all take in order to bring about a better capitalism. Entrusted was Financial Times Book of the Month in October 2019.

Mark is also the author of Living Tomorrow’s Company – rediscovering the Human Purposes in Business, published in India in 2013 by Knowledge Partners. This book focuses on the experience of India and Asian companies. Between 2005 and 2007 he worked with Infosys Chair Nandan Nilekani and 10 other leaders of global companies on the groundbreaking Tomorrow’s Global Company report.

After 15 years as a manager in manufacturing businesses, Mark Goyder initiated the RSA Tomorrow’s Company inquiry into ‘the role of business in a changing world’. The resulting report, published in 1995 led to the creation of Tomorrow’s Company as an independent, business-led think tank. It also laid the foundations for the “enlightened shareholder value” approach in the redefinition of the directors’ duties in the 2006 Companies Act. The report was the first to make the case that purpose, values and relationships – and not the narrow pursuit of financial objectives - lay at the heart of sustainable business success, a case that is now widely acknowledged across the business and investment world.

Mark has served in advisory capacities for British Airways, BT, Camelot, Co-operative Financial Services, Novo Nordisk, and Walgreens Boots Alliance. A broadcaster, writer and winner of the Institute of Management Studies Tillers Millennium Trophy for best speaker, Mark was Director Magazine Director of the Month in June 2004. Journalist Anthony Hilton described Tomorrow’s Company as “five years ahead of the pack in looking at what is needed in governance terms to make British companies sustainable wealth creators”.

In recent years he has concentrated on the issue of board and investor responsibilities for stewardship., co-authoring a report with the Institute for Family Business on Family Business Stewardship. He led the formation and work of the UK’s Investor Stewardship Working Party which in 2012 launched the 2020 Stewardship report and culminated in the 2018 Better Stewardship report. This work was the catalyst for the creation in the UK of the world’s first Stewardship Code, an innovation now repeated around the world. In 2018 Mark was appointed the sole independent member on the Wates Committee, set up by the UK government to develop corporate governance principles for privately owned businesses.

In 2013 he initiated a new project entitled Tomorrow’s Business Forms, and through this Tomorrow’s Company developed the idea of a ‘Trust Test’. The idea of a standard set of requirements, which private sector organisations can meet to demonstrate trustworthiness to the public sector was then developed by the British Standards Institution (BSI) and launched as British Standard 95009 in 2019. It is intended for use as a framework which helps those in the procurement process to more accurately assess the culture and character of organisations tendering for and procuring contracts.

Between 1985 and 1989 Mark was a Kent County Councillor. In 2018 he was invited to become Deputy Chair of the Public Service Reform Commission initiated in 2018 by the Mayor of Cambridge and Peterborough, and he is now Deputy Chair of the Commission, which is focusing on the improvement of health and social care in the region.

In 2019 Mark’s achievements were recognised with the award of an honorary doctorate in civil law by the University of East Anglia. In his address to new graduates commending Mark for this honour, the university’s Public Orator, Dr Kevan Williams said:

‘Business leaders are smart, they know when things are wrong, and with Mark they have the challenge, but also the support and importantly the answers to makes things right…What can we learn from Mark Goyder? Remember leadership is about others and not about you. That good people do get to the top. And in your careers, make the world a better place. You can’t do it alone, instead be the catalyst inspiring others to change and be the catalyst that makes things happen more quickly.’