British High Commissioner endorses IoD Malta strategy

Nick Archer, the British High Commissioner, strongly endorsed the Institute of Directors Malta Branch (IoD) chairman's strategy for progressive corporate governance in Malta coupled with director development initiatives spearheaded by IoD.

Mr Archer commended the IoD's approach to developing the quality of governance in public and private companies in Malta, stressing that this would allow British companies to trade with even greater confidence in Malta.

The Winter Workshop Series, launched in 2007 by IoD, was an event that every local director should consider attending, Mr Archer said, and reflected the strong commitment IoD has to director development.

The next seminar in the series will be held at Hilton Malta focusing on 'Role Relationships and Committees', and will be delivered by Hong Kong expert Peter Barrett on February 24. The Winter Workshop Series offers practical and pragmatic workshops to enable an effective contribution to the work of local company directors within their boards.

Mr Satariano explained that IoD Malta was founded over 40 years ago and represents directors from every corner of industry in Malta. IoD Malta's key role is helping the government, all local stakeholders and society to improve corporate governance standards, and to improve the foundations for economic growth and development in Malta.

The Institute of Directors, Mr Satariano said, is the world's most experienced, long-standing organisation advocating director professionalism, with the IoD in the UK being the oldest and largest directors' institute in the world with over 50,000 individual members.

Malta has been at the forefront in developing international interest, which has led to the formation of IoD International. Along with providing tangible benefits to business leaders across the globe involving high quality advice and support services, the IoD International network aims to have a significant and positive impact on the international business environment.

Mr Satariano then outlined how, as a founding member of the Global Director Development Circle (GDDC), the IoD continues to broaden its international influence.

The GDDC is made up of the leading professional membership organisations for directors across six continents and aims to foster close co-operation between member organisations, sharing knowledge and good practice on national, regional and global levels.

In addition, he said, the IoD continues to develop its influence across continental Europe, where the IoD has an expanding network of proactive members and IoD branches.

Along with strengthening the range of membership benefits available in continental Europe, the IoD represents the views of its members at EU level as one of the founding members of the new European Confederation of Directors' Associations (ECODA), an influential voice for directors.

The IoD is one of the three founding members of the new ECODA, and has been established to ensure that directors' views on corporate governance and company law are heard across the policy-making institutions in the EU. In addition, ECODA provides a platform for information exchange on best practice in corporate governance.

Since its launch in April 2005, ECODA has already made an impact on the shape of EU company law. By persuading MEPs to amend the new Statutory Audit Directive, ECODA was instrumental in ensuring that audit committees would not become a mandatory requirement for every quoted company.