Governance Institute appoints new President
Governance Institute of Australia is pleased to announce the appointment of Simon Pordage FGIA as its new national president for 2016.
Mr Pordage has served on Governance Institute’s board since 2012 and held the position of vice-president immediately prior to his elevation to the presidency. Despite being the Institute’s youngest presidential appointment at 39 years of age, Mr Pordage has had a distinguished 17-year career in governance. He is currently company secretary for four listed investment companies, including Australia’s largest, Australian Foundation Investment Company Limited and was previously deputy company secretary for ANZ Banking Group and prior to that, head of board support for Barclays PLC in the United Kingdom.
Mr Pordage has also had a longstanding involvement with Governance Institute. He has held various official roles with the peak body over the past ten years, including as chair of its major policy committee for the last five years, through which he has championed policy reforms to improve governance in Australia and actively developed and delivered education and training for governance professionals.
Outgoing president Ms Trisha Mok said Mr Pordage’s expertise, dedication to the profession and passion for effective governance would set the tone for his presidency and continue to drive the Institute’s leadership in whole-of-organisation governance in all sectors — public, private and not-for-profit.
“Simon is recognised for his leadership on practical and effective governance measures and reforms. His guidance will be invaluable as the Institute facilitates taking governance to the next frontier over the coming years — beyond the board to the entire organisation,” Ms Mok said.
Mr Pordage said he was very pleased that organisations today understood the relationship between good governance and strong performance.
“Our challenge going forward is to support Australian organisations to take their governance to the next level by rolling out strong frameworks throughout the entire organisation that promote greater productivity and ‘on-strategy’ achievement,” Mr Pordage said.
“That will involve encouraging all organisations to ‘join the dots’ on their culture, risk management, strategy-setting and communication frameworks and to cascade them effectively, so that everyone in the organisation — not just the board and executives — understands what they need to do, what they are authorised and empowered to do, and also what they are accountable for, to help the organisation achieve its goals.”
Mr Pordage will serve as Governance Institute of Australia’s president for a year.
From Governance Institute of Australia Media Release 1 December 2015
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