Monday 11th April 2016 – 4.30pm
Address Details: Fox Williams LLP, 10 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1AF
Helen Farr, Partner, Fox Williams LLP
‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’
Managing Board Performance and Dealing with Conflict
Following Helen’s Presentation, the Panel Session will be facilitated by Ian Gray of Baronsmead Consulting
The Panel will consist of: ‘Helen Farr, Gerry Brown, Peter Dicks and Fran Moscow
A huge thank you to Helen Farr for organising the sponsorship for this event and to Fran Moscow for bringing in the distinguished panel members
Helen Farr is a partner in the firm’s employment group and a member of the Senior Managers & Certification Regime group. Her practice covers the full spectrum of employment law and human resources strategy.
Helen has a broad client base with particular expertise within the financial and professional services sectors. She focuses largely on strategic matters such as workplace discrimination of a sensitive nature, equal pay, team moves and boardroom disputes. Helen is also well-versed in dealing with industrial relations issues.
Helen has extensive experience in the application of TUPE and has advised on a variety of TUPE transfers including business acquisitions, mergers, private sector outsourcing and PPP/PFI projects within the private and public sectors.
Helen prides herself on having great commitment to excellent client service and finding innovative solutions to employment and human resources issues. She often provides tailored training sessions to meet the needs of her clients. She is a regular speaker at employment law conferences and frequently writes for leading publications on employment matters.
Prior to joining Fox Williams, Helen was a partner at a London based Top 20 firm.
Panel Session facilitated by Ian Gray of Baronsmead Consulting.
The panel will consist of: Gerry Brown, Peter Dicks and Fran Moscow
Managing board performance and dealing with conflict
For companies to deliver the best value to their shareholders and other key stakeholders it is essential that they are led by a strong board. Ensuring the board is composed of the right people is therefore vital. Inevitably conflicts will arise as part of the management of this process.
In our next session we will examine the following issues:
How to attract and retain the best people?
Ways to avoid conflicts from arising?
What skills are required to resolve boardroom conflicts?
If and when conflicts do arise what solutions are available?
Ian Gray is one of the most respected Turnaround specialists working today. He has extensive international experience of business recovery in wide-ranging assignments. Ian’s boardroom experience includes numerous PLCs and spans many different industry sectors, including: apparel, biotech, construction, distribution, electronics, engineering, FMCG, healthcare, leisure, manufacturing, media, property, retail, telecoms and travel. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants; a Fellow of the Institute for Turnaround; Founding Member of the Asian Transformation and Turnaround Association; holds the Corporate Finance Qualification; is a Chartered Manager; a Director of TMA (UK); and a Fellow of The European Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals. Over the last two years he has won four prestigious business awards for his work.
Gerry Brown is Chairman of Novaquest Capital a private equity house focussed on life sciences.
His previous posts include: Independent Director of Quintiles; Chairman of Biocompatibles International plc; Chairman of NFT Ltd (a MBO from Northern Foods funded by Phoenix Equity); Senior Independent Director of Keller plc; Senior Independent Director of Forth Ports.
Gerry represented 3i on the Board of Vantec Corporation a MBO from Nissan in Japan until the extremely successful exit. He then represented the purchaser (the Japanese bank Mizuho) until the flotation on the Japanese Stock Market. He was Chairman of Upol Ltd, a business funded by Graphite Private Equity. He was a Director of CH Jones a private company and was also a Non- Executive Director of Michael Gerson Ltd representing the Bank of Scotland and of Datrontech plc.
Prior to his career as a Chairman/ Independent Director Gerry was for many years an international senior business executive working in supply chain management .covering a variety of market sectors. He served as Operations Director of Exel plc (now DHL), was a Board member of TDG plc and latterly was Chairman of Europe for Tibbett and Britten plc. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and of the Chartered Institute of Logistics. He is a member of the Council of Exeter University and Chair of the Fundraising Board. He is an Associate of Critical Eye and is involved in counselling Chief Executives. His book ‘The Independent Director ‘ was recently published by Palgrave Macmillan .
Gerry is married with 5 children and was educated in England at Exeter and Reading Universities and the London Business School’.
Peter Dicks has over 30 years’ experience in the private equity sector, as a venture capitalist investing in technology companies, board member of private and public companies, and director of investment funds and fund-of-funds.
Specialities: Peter co-founded Abingworth, one of the UK’s early venture capital funds, in 1973 where he stayed until 1991. The majority of Abingworth’s portfolio consisted of American technology companies and it was an early investor in, amongst others, Apple, Silicon Graphics, Symantec and 3COM. He has been a co-investor in deals with venture firms Venrock, NEA and Kleiner Perkins among others.
Fran Moscow opened her Executive Coaching Practice in 2005 and specialises in working with C.Suite, ExCo and top talent as a non-judgemental thinking partner. She works across the FTSE, NASDAQ. Private Equity and SME sectors, supporting these executives to leverage profitability, in succession planning, business transformation and aligning senior teams. In addition, she works with senior executives who want to built an NED portfolio, focusing on Personal Branding, Networking, and the criteria necessary achieve an Executive Director/NED role.
Fran chairs the Non-Executive Director Special Interest Group for the Executive Network and is known as a Keynote Speaker, Panellist and Presenter focusing on the issue of Women on Board.