The seat window
A first-term independent-director position carrying both Audit Committee and Stakeholders Relationship Committee chair responsibilities is expected to enter its filed vacancy window in June 2027.
What makes this chairship distinctive
The business combines manufactured products with project and service obligations. Financial performance therefore depends on more than output: tender assumptions, contract milestones, site readiness, acceptance, retention money, change orders, warranty and collection each influence the quality and timing of earnings. The Audit Committee Chair must be able to test the commercial evidence beneath recognised revenue while also protecting the credibility of disclosure and stakeholder response.
The seat suits someone who understands that project reporting can be technically correct and still hide deteriorating economics. Percentage completion, unbilled revenue, claims, liquidated damages, provisions and expected cost to complete should be reviewed together. A favourable milestone is not sufficient evidence if customer acceptance, cash or remaining obligations tell a different story.
The oversight terrain
Tender and contract discipline. Material bids should carry documented assumptions about specifications, localisation, supply, taxes, site dependencies, performance guarantees and cash. After award, deviations need a controlled route into forecast, margin and risk. The Board should see which claims are contractually supported, disputed or merely hoped for.
Project accounting and cash. The Chair will challenge cut-off, milestone evidence, estimated cost to complete, retention, mobilisation advances, receivable ageing and impairment. Project-level cash and margin bridges should explain why reported profit has or has not converted to cash.
Procurement and integrity. Vendor onboarding, technical qualification, conflicts, tender confidentiality, price variance, subcontracting and payment controls require risk-led assurance. Where public-sector or institutionally procured work is present, anti-bribery, intermediary and books-and-records controls must operate beyond policy acknowledgements.
Product performance. Test results, calibration, traceability, installation quality, warranty trends, field failure and service parts should be connected to provisions and customer escalation. Repeated defects must be viewed as a system signal even where individual claims are small.
Technology and access. Engineering repositories, project data, financial applications and remote field access need ownership, segregation, backup and recovery. The committee should understand how unauthorised design or configuration change could create financial, safety and customer consequences.
Investor and stakeholder treatment. As SRC Chair, the director will oversee investor grievances, transfer and dematerialisation matters, disclosure accessibility and recurring shareholder questions. Material customer or project disputes that could affect disclosure should be escalated through an agreed protocol without compromising privilege or negotiation.
How the Chair will work
The appointee will hold private sessions with external and internal auditors, require risk-based audit scope at both plant and project sites, and keep repeat findings open until control behaviour changes. The Chair should establish a compact dashboard of contract exposure, estimate movement, cash conversion, overdue findings, quality events and stakeholder cases—small enough to reveal exceptions rather than bury them.
Application evidence
Candidates should demonstrate senior finance, audit, project-business, industrial, risk or governance leadership. Valuable experience includes long-cycle contracts, public procurement, multi-site controls, engineering change, project claims and difficult revenue-recognition judgements. Applicants should describe situations in which they challenged a forecast or estimate before the downside was visible in the accounts. Prior Audit Committee chair experience is desirable.
Statutory independence, conflicts, DIN and Independent Directors' Databank status will be verified before any introduction. The anticipated workload includes quarterly cycles, project or plant visits, auditor sessions and availability for material financial, quality or stakeholder events.
Application note
Applications should present committee-relevant evidence rather than a general biography: two or three decisions personally governed, the information used, the challenge made, and the resulting change in risk, capital, control, succession or stakeholder outcome. Shortlisted candidates will undergo independence, conflict, capacity, DIN and databank verification before any confidential market approach.