SPEAKER PROFILE

Seamus Gillen is acknowledged as an international governance expert, with experience gained over thirty years as a Chartered Secretary, a company secretary, in executive management roles, and as Policy Director of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries (ICSA) in the UK.

He authored ICSA's 2010 guidance on 'Boardroom Behaviours' and, in 2011, played the principal role in delivering the benchmark regulatory guidance on effective boards – the Financial Reporting Council’s Guidance on Board Effectiveness – which has been adopted by institutions around the world.  (For example, the Guidance has been adopted by the three Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – as their Corporate Governance Code).

He oversaw the production of a comprehensive  body of governance best practice – ICSA’s technical output, and its best-practice Guidance Notes on boards and directors, are used by law firms, accounting firms and other professional bodies as the gold-standard guidance on governance issues.  Subjects covered include ‘Director induction’, ‘Joining the right board’, ‘Non-executive director appointments’, ‘Matters reserved for the board’, ‘Committee terms of reference’, and ‘Care, skill and diligence’.

Seamus Gillen’s body of work on boards and directors, and on the issues they face – guidance, research, thought leadership and public speaking – represents a significant and practical contribution to the world of strategic governance leadership and innovation. He trains extensively internationally.

Previously, Seamus was the Group Company Secretary and Director of Regulation at Anglian Water plc, advising the board on regulatory, governance, environmental, operational and corporate issues; and Head of Public Policy and Regulation at O2 plc, where he had a similar role.  He was originally a senior policy adviser to the UK Government, and was Private Secretary to John Gummer MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, and John Prescott MP, Deputy Prime Minister.  He also served for 15 months as an adviser in Paris to the French Government.

Seamus has a BA (Hons) in Business Studies and French, a Masters of Business Administration from Henley Business School, and is an ICSA Fellow.