My contribution to a board
Most boards I would consider have no technologist among their independent directors, and they receive technology and data matters as reports to be noted. I would help a board treat them as decisions. That means asking which systems the company cannot operate without, how long it could run without each of them and whether that has been tested; which contractors hold its customers' or suppliers' data, and on what terms; and which decisions are already being made by models, with what checks. I have answered those questions as an executive in front of Hesui's committees for five years, and I know which answers sound reassuring without being so.
I would also bring a habit formed in agricultural insurance: scepticism about measurements made from a distance. A farm-economy company estimates many things it cannot directly see, from crop yields in its sourcing regions to dealer stock and the use of its machines in the field. I have spent twenty years building such estimates and finding where they fail, and on a board I would ask how management's figures were produced and how they were checked against the ground.
In China the revised Company Law, in force since July 2024, allows a company to give its board's audit committee the supervisory functions previously held by a board of supervisors, and the CSRC's 2023 rules on independent directors of listed companies place weight on their work in the audit, nomination and remuneration committees and on matters where interests may conflict. I would not claim accounting expertise I lack. I would be a useful audit committee member on information-system controls, outsourcing and data, beside a chair with the financial qualifications the role demands.
Judgement in practice
01Ending a drone contractor's arrangement in the middle of a season
In June 2022 an internal review found that one of our drone-survey contractors kept copies of household lists, including identity numbers, on its own servers, beyond what our contract allowed. Two branch managers asked to finish the season with the contractor and deal with it in the autumn. I reported the finding to the Risk Management and Consumer Rights Protection Committee within a week and recommended ending the arrangement at once, with deletion verified by an outside examiner, and moving imagery processing into a new wholly owned subsidiary. It cost RMB 14 million that year and delayed autumn surveys in one province by two weeks. As a director I would ask where a company's data actually sits, not where its contracts say it sits.
02Reporting a recovery test that failed without any customer noticing
In the 2023 disaster-recovery test, our new agricultural ledger took 19 hours to restore against a four-hour objective. No customer was affected and nothing required external reporting. I put it in the next Audit Committee paper as a finding, with a remediation plan: a second synchronised copy in another data centre at a cost of RMB 22 million. The 2024 test restored the ledger in just over three hours. The committee has since asked for recovery results on all critical systems every year. On a board I would expect near misses to be reported with the same seriousness as incidents, because they are the cheapest evidence a director will ever receive.
03Recommending a later cutover than the president wanted
In 2022 our president wanted the first three provinces moved to the new agricultural ledger before autumn sowing in September, so that the programme could show progress at the year-end board. I recommended November, after the sowing-season underwriting of about 1.2 million households, because parallel running needed a quiet window and a full cycle to compare. The executive committee accepted the later date and the board's risk committee was told why. The November cutover lost no records. On any board reviewing a large programme, I would ask whose calendar its deadline serves.
My first year on a board
Before the first meeting I would ask for three documents: the internal audit plan with its technology findings, the list of the company's critical systems with their recovery objectives and last test results, and the register of contractors that process its data. I would also read three years of board and audit committee minutes and the external auditor's reports, and I would ask to see a factory, depot or field operation in its busy season rather than on a scheduled visit.
For the first six months I would mostly listen. I would meet the heads of internal audit and information security without management present, as committee practice permits, and ask each what they would raise if they were not worried about its reception. In committee I would confine my questions to areas where I can add evidence, and say plainly when a matter lies outside my competence.
In the second half of the year I would propose at most one change, if one is needed, such as an annual board paper on critical systems and data prepared to the standard of the financial statements. At the year's end I would ask the board chair and the committee chair whether my contribution justified the time it took from them, and act on what they said.
Conflicts and their management
Three kinds of conflict could arise, and I would settle each before accepting a seat rather than after.
The commercial kind comes first. Hesui insures farms, cooperatives, agribusinesses and their machinery, and three agribusiness companies are among its shareholders. A seed, machinery or food-processing company could easily be a Hesui policyholder, a competitor of one of those shareholders or a partner of our online book. I would decline any board where such a relationship exists or is planned, and I would not join an insurer, an insurance intermediary or a company selling technology or data to insurers.
The second is information. I know Hesui's loss data, pricing and partner terms, and I would carry none of it into another boardroom, nor bring that company's information back. If a discussion came near either, I would say so and leave the room.
The third is time. Hesui's busiest periods are the June wheat harvest and the autumn harvest, and I would agree a meeting calendar that respects them. If a conflict appeared after I joined, I would disclose it to the chair at once, stand aside from the matter and resign if the relationship looked likely to last. Any directorship would need the prior consent of Hesui's board.
My independence statement
My only employer is Hesui, and I own no shares in it or in any listed company in the sectors I have named. I would put in writing, before any nomination, my employment, my subsidiary directorship, my family's business interests and any dealings I have had with the company or its major shareholders. I would not stand for a board whose company insures with Hesui, is connected to Hesui's shareholders or sells technology or data to insurers. Whether the facts I disclose meet the independence requirements that apply to that company is a matter for its board and nomination committee under the rules, and not one I would presume to settle myself.
Board and committee exposure
Presented to the Board or a committee
Hesui Property Insurance Company Limited
Risk Management and Consumer Rights Protection Committee: technology risk, data protection, outsourcing and the fairness of claims models
March 2021–present
Presents quarterly on technology and data-protection exceptions and twice a year on claims-model fairness results; attends as an executive and holds no vote.
Reported to a committee
Hesui Property Insurance Company Limited
Audit Committee: IT general controls, internal audit findings on technology and disaster-recovery testing
March 2021–present
Reports each year, and whenever audit findings concern technology, including the failed 2023 recovery test on the agricultural ledger.
Served as a director
Hesui Agri-Data Services Company Limited
Board of the wholly owned drone-survey and imagery subsidiary
September 2022–present
Director in an executive capacity, approving the subsidiary's budget, contractor arrangements and data-handling rules.
Presented to the Board or a committee
Yunzhu Online Property Insurance Company Limited
Board risk committee: platform-partner data arrangements and peak-season resilience
April 2019–February 2021
Presented the analysis behind declining buyer-level return histories and the results of the annual peak-load tests.