Governance in Unlisted and Private Companies

John is a trained mentor and has helped several company secretaries develop and reach their potential at various stages of their careers and is currently using this skill as a coach for Beyond Governance in a recently launched initiative.

John has over 25 years’ experience of the annual report and accounts process and has enjoyed helping various organisations review and improve their corporate governance frameworks. John sees relationship management as an extremely important and underappreciated part of the role for an effective company secretary and values the part soft skills must play, particularly in today’s world of remote working and virtual meetings.

John began his career at Cadbury Schweppes plc when it was a FTSE 100 company and has since worked in a variety of organisations including Virgin Group, Royal London, and QBE as well as in professional services. In 2019, John decided to focus on interim opportunities before joining Beyond Governance as a consultant in 2021. John has spent much of the last ten years in Financial Services where he has focussed on supporting boards and committees – minuting is a particular strongpoint along with senior stakeholder management.