Board Chair — Governance Renewal (Asset Management)

Authority on paper, authority in practice

Delegated authority frameworks describe who may decide what. Over time, they drift from who actually does. A committee approves things that were decided elsewhere; an entity board signs off decisions it never debated; a threshold set years ago now catches either everything or nothing. Resetting delegated authority means bringing the paper back into line with practice, or practice back into line with the paper, and choosing deliberately which.

The chair's oversight role

The Board Chair's authority is oversight, exercised by leading the board. You will help the board agree a map of delegated authority across entities and committees, including the limits within which local managers act, and set the standard of evidence directors use when overseeing capital, resources and internal control. You will question whether existing commitments should carry on, be paused or be stopped, particularly any whose cost or risk nobody owns, and test value cases for adoption, dependencies and downside before the board approves them. You will oversee who leads what and how matters reach the board, help settle disagreements between executive and operating leaders, and fix the rhythm on which directors review progress, exceptions and unresolved questions.

Why the chair, and not a project

A reset of delegated authority cannot be run as a project beneath the board, because the board's own committees are part of what is being reset. It needs someone who can ask a committee chair to give up a mandate, or take one on, and be heard. In a state-linked organisation the reset also has to be legible to stakeholders beyond the board, so that the new lines of authority are understood and respected outside it.

The year, chaired

By day ninety the map of delegated authority should be agreed, with committee mandates and the board agenda brought into line with it. Around month nine, the delegated authorities should be tested against decisions actually taken, and committee mandates revised wherever authority and accountability have come apart. By month 12, the directors should have completed an evaluation cycle on the reset framework and agreed the cadence on which it reviews exceptions.

The chair we are seeking

During a turnaround you redrew who held authority, how activity was funded and how often the business reviewed itself, and in earlier governance roles you insisted that every tolerated exception had someone answerable for its cost. You have governed across eight or more countries, with 400 or more people and $325 million or more in revenue. You bring on successors as the board changes how it works, so the new arrangements survive without you. Turnaround, integration and professionalisation are the experiences that will be examined. The board is looking for governance ethics at level 4, and level 3 across risk judgement, entity governance, and board and stakeholder management. A chair who would not end a commitment until each national head agreed, or who wants the standing without 12 months of accountability, is not the right fit.

Four steps to the chair

In week one the Nomination and Governance Committee Chair meets you, confidentially, over video. In week three the Regional President works with you on how delegated authority operates in practice; in week five a panel of executives covering the main functions meets you face to face; and week seven is the directors' own session with their prospective chair. You will have an answer on each stage within five working days.