This is a member seat with a chair's standard of preparation
The appointee will serve on Audit, NRC and Risk without being recruited to dominate any of them. The Board is looking for a director who can bring independent synthesis: listen to specialists, identify the assumption that connects their reports, and ask the question that changes a decision. Strong committee membership is an active governance discipline, not a waiting room for a future chair.
Where the committees meet
An expansion proposal may appear in Risk as supply and execution exposure, in Audit as capex and impairment, and in NRC as leadership capacity. A major customer contract may appear in Audit as revenue and receivables, in Risk as concentration and liability, and in NRC as incentive pressure. The director will ensure that the Board receives the combined consequence rather than three technically correct fragments.
Industrial economics
The member will challenge margin and cash through material price, mix, energy, yield, capacity utilisation, freight, export exposure and pass-through timing. Inventory should be assessed for ageing, specification, alternate use and customer linkage. Working-capital improvement must be distinguished from supplier stretch, deferred maintenance or reduced service resilience.
Capital projects will retain their approval baseline for output, yield, resource use, quality, working capital and cash. Review gates should test readiness, customer qualification, supply, people and downside funding. Post-completion assessment must explain whether benefits were delayed, reduced or achieved and what the Board learned.
Risk and control
Operational risk includes safety, process stability, critical equipment, supplier failure, logistics and environmental consent. The director will seek near-miss and barrier evidence, not only lagging incidents. Cyber risk will include plant systems, engineering data, remote access and recovery.
On Audit, priorities include revenue cut-off, inventory, provisions, foreign exchange, related parties, procurement integrity, tax, statutory dues and technology access. Internal audit should visit plants and follow high-risk processes across functional boundaries. Repeated findings require root-cause and independent effectiveness testing.
Leadership contribution
Through NRC, the member will examine succession for plant, finance, quality, engineering and commercial leadership; technical career paths; key-person dependence; and reward measures that may trade long-term reliability for short-term output. Board evaluation should identify where industrial or risk knowledge needs strengthening.
Candidate evidence
Applicants may be manufacturing CEOs, CFOs, business heads, operations leaders, audit partners or risk executives with multi-site exposure. They should demonstrate how they influenced a material capital, contract, control or succession decision without taking management's role. Independence, conflicts, DIN and databank compliance are prerequisites. Plant visits and preparation across three committees are part of the expected commitment.
Committee effectiveness will depend on disciplined dissent. The director should be prepared to state which management assumption remains unproven, what evidence would resolve it and when the Board must decide despite uncertainty. Equally, the member must recognise when additional detail will not change the decision and avoid turning oversight into endless information demand.