Boardroom&Beyond Podcast

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Fedor Heijl, Chair of Vistage in Netherland. Board Chair of TechnoParts B.V.. and a family business trusted advisor.

This is the second part of Lyndsey and Fedor's conversation. Topics of this episode are focused on the new governance model of family-owned business.

Conversation with Fedor Heijl Highlights

Vistage and Fedor's role as Vistage Chairo Passion of coaching and mentoring next generation (2:00) o Value creation environment (6:00)

How does the Vistage advisory group operate and help members?o Diversity of the advisory group (7:00) o Case study (7:40)

Fedor's passion of helping others?o Passion of helping others (9:00)

Vistage Netherlando Netherland culture plays in business (10:00) o Stakeholder consideration in Netherland companies (11:00) o Think global, act local! (18:00)

Family business mindset (12:30)

Three takeaway advice for family Business mindset (13:30)

Guest Contact Information

1. Contact info: Fedor Heijl MSc. [email protected] linkedin.com/in/fedorheijl +31 6 55 13 80 79
2. Websites: www.fvice.nl www.vistage.nl www.vistage.com

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Fedor Heijl, Chair of Vistage in Netherland. Board Chair of TechnoParts B.V.. and a family business trusted advisor.

Their conversation of this episode is regarding the company culture of family-owned business.

Conversation with Fedor Heijl Highlights

The beauty of Netherland and Netherland cultureo Netherland with diverse culture (4:00) o World-class R&D center (5:30)

Key reasons of Netherland family-owned company's successo Family controlled public listed companies (7:30) o Small family-owned business focus on long-term value (8:00) o Simply organization structure make decision making process efficient (8:40)

Fedor's family-owned business structure?o Brief intro (10:00) o Governing and managing structure (11:00) o Treat employees as partners (12:30)

Top challenges growing family businesso Long-term growth with employees and customers in mind (13:15) o Biggest challenge is the lifecycle of the business (14:30) o Opportunity for the business (15:00) o Pros and Cons for next steps of the business (16:00) o Think global, act local! (18:00)

Guest Contact Information

1. Contact info: Fedor Heijl MSc. [email protected] linkedin.com/in/fedorheijl +31 6 55 13 80 79
2. Websites: www.fvice.nl www.vistage.nl www.vistage.com

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Marie-Josée Privyk, Head of ESG Innovation and Customer Success at Novisto Inc.. Marie-Josee is an extensive ESG Advisor to companies and investors with nearly 30 years of experience in capital markets.

Their conversation of this episode focuses on various topics on today's ESG reporting and compliance standards, challenges for companies, and directions for future regulatory development and ESG reporting trends.

Conversation Highlights

Overall landscape of sustainable reporting today

• Fast growing and increasingly changing ESG reporting and compliance (6:00)
• Difference between Sustainable Reporting and ESG Reporting (9:40)

The top challenges for corporates for sustainability reporting

• Challenges on "What" (11:20)
• Challenges on "How" (13:20)
• Challenges on "Improvement" (14:20)

Reporting Frameworks and Standards

• Two Main Standards (GRI and SASB) and their different focus (15:15)
• Frameworks - TCFD, a high level framework could apply to any sustainability (17:10)
• Frameworks - Integrated reporting framework – requires integrated thinking (18:00)

ESG reporting standards for corporate and for investors

• Parallel reporting standard but related (19:30)
• PRI Signatories for investors – more pressure on investor increase pressure to companies (20:20)

Why should companies improve ESG performance and reporting?

• Operating, risk mitigation, Lower cost of capital, enterprise value creation (23:00)
• ESG reporting pressure to private-owned or family-owned companies (25:00)
• Pressure from other stakeholders for companies' ESG performance (26:20)

The direction of companies' sustainable (ESG) reporting journey

• Fast-pace evolving, increasing clarity, increasing regulation (29:20)
• Company's understanding about "Why" helps adopting the process (30:30)
• Requirement of collective efforts (31:30)

Regulatory development trend for different stage of companies

• Regulation difference is not necessary (33:00)
• Industry differentiation has two sides thoughts at the moment – a hybrid model might work better (34:30)

Best approach to build sustainable strategy

• Board and C-Suite role to understand ESG and its relationship to the company (36:30)
• Max ESG rating vs. underlying research information (38:30)

Doing it for real!

• Future forward looking – Digital revolution efficient ESG data collection and analysis (40:30)

Guest Contact Information

Marie-Josée Privyk

[email protected]

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Agnes Tai, Senior Partner of Yaozhi Asset Management International and an ESG thought leader. And Agnes has been a sustainable investor for many years.

The conversation of this episode focuses on stewardship and ESG reporting challenges and development in major Asian finance hubs.

Conversation Highlights

• Stewardship in Asia
  • Actively Proxy voting is just started in Asian companies, especially for E and S factors (4:00)
  • Stewardship in Asia is just become active and rewarding (5:40)

• ESG reporting challenges for Asian companies
  • Corporate progress on sustainable reporting (7:20)
  • Three Challenges in ESG reporting – lack of standard, confusing of various international standard, standard for data comparation, green washing, PR exercise, etc. (9:40)
  • ESG Service providers in Hong Kong are not standardized (12:30)

• What activities can be most supportive for ESG reporting improvement in Asian market
  • Various reporting standard on market today (14:40)
  • TCFD reporting is the focus of Asia market at the moment leading by Japan (JPIF) (15:20)
  • ESG education and incentives programs in Hong Kong (17:40)

• What are the biggest differences in HKEX 2020 new regime vs. previous ESG guidance
  • Climate-related disclosure only (19:00)
  • Transition risks, regulation risk and consumer behavior changes affect long-term reliability of business (22:30)
  • New IPO are required to have "ESG ready" (23:00)

Guest Contact Information

Agnes K Y Tai

https://www.linkedin.com/in/agnestai/

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Agnes Tai, Senior Partner of Yaozhi Asset Management International and an ESG thought leader. And Agnes has been a sustainable investor for many years.

Conversation of this episode is focusing on how government, local organizations and investors drive ESG movement in major Asian finance hubs.

Conversation Highlights

• How Agnes started Sustainable Investment and latest career with Yaozhi Asset Management (1:30)

• Different terms – responsible investing, sustainable investing, impact investing, ESG (3:30)

• PRI signatories rapid increasing in Asian countries
• Growing Number of PRI signatories in different Asian countries (3:30)
• Sustainable investing growing trend (9:45)

• How Asian countries governments drive ESG PRI signatories?
  • Major Asian countries' ESG engagement status (12:10)
  • Transparency and disclosure are the key for effective ESG enforcement (14:20)
  • Asian countries are racing for leading roles in ESG and sustainable reporting (16:00)

• How Asian asset management firms influence ESG performance? (17:35)
  • Long-term value creating for portfolio companies (18:10)
  • Japan Case study (JPIF) started sustainable pension fund in 2016

• How Asian investors weight financial return vs. ESG performance? (25:30)
  • MSCI China ESG Index show good ESG performance leads to high financial return (26:10)
  • HK Fund manager code of conduct regulation in the next 12 months (28:00)
  • MSCI new reports focus on E and S factors (29:00)

Guest Contact Information

Agnes K Y Tai

https://www.linkedin.com/in/agnestai/

In this episode, Lyndsey moderates a debate between Patrick Dunne and Clint Bartlett.

Patrick and Clint share their opinions regarding the effectiveness of Impact Investment in Africa and other related topics from their different roles in the impact investment ecosystem.

Conversation Highlights (with timestamps)

• What is impact investment? (2:10)
• What kind of structure is most effective for impact investing? (10:00)
• Challenges finding good impact investing project in Africa (22:20)
• When an impact project (education) does not work, where does the education project go, how to be sustainable? (31:00)
• Top reasons for impact investment failure? (38:00)
• How to bridge social impact and commercial impact (50:00)
• Bad experience shared by Patrick (61:00)
• Will recently issued UK stewardship code and stewardship code in South Africa help making impact investing more efficient? (65:00)

Guest Contact Information

Patrick Dunne

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickdunne2/

Twitter: patrickedunne

Email: [email protected]

Websites:

leapcc.org.uk (Leap)

warwick.ac.uk/warwickinafrica (Warwick in Africa)

Clint Bartlett

Email: [email protected]

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clintdbartlett/

Publication: https://nextbillion.net/risk-perception-funding-gap/

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Nawar Alsaadi, Acting-Chief Strategy & ESG Officer at Mark Labs. Nawar is a sustainable investment professional and experienced activist investor. He has been involved with a number of high-profile activist battles with TSX and NYSE listed companies on issues pertaining to corporate governance and corporate strategy.

The topic of this episode is about Nawar's Material Engagement Strategy.

Conversation Highlights

• The motivation of Material Engagement strategy (2:20)
• The Missing Link (6:50)
• How to make engagement work? (12:00)
• How entities play their roles in Material Engagement strategy (16:00)
• The best way to make influence (21:00)
• How 3rd party service agency helps for shareholder engagement? (25:00)
• How to align shareholders goals? (30:00)
• Collaboration with Mark Labs (35:00)

Guest Contact Information

Email: [email protected]

Publications

The Bull of Heaven -

https://www.amazon.ca/Bull-Heaven-Millionaire-Fighting-Shareholder-ebook/dp/B00KK5I8VS/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+bull+of+heaven+nawar&qid=1605455687&sr=8-1

Clock Zero: I am not my social feed

https://www.amazon.com/Clock-Zero-not-social-feed-ebook/dp/B01MXQKE96/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=clock+zero+nawar&qid=1605455727&sr=8-1

Website: https://engagementproject249624452.wordpress.com/

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Vivian Lin, partner and portfolio manager of William Blair's China A-Shares Growth strategy and a global research analyst covering Chinese equities.

They continue the conversation by Vivian sharing her commendation regarding China investment opportunities by industry sectors and geographic locations.

Vivian then shared her opinion regarding Ant Group IPO incident and China regulation reform.

They close the conversation with discussion regarding Vivian's view of China's next 5-years plan and her investment strategy to reflect the upcoming changings of China economic focus according to the new 5-years plan.

Conversation Highlights (with timestamps)

#007 Part 2:

• Tech / health / Consumer sector preference vs. geographic locations (1:30)
• Industrial sector preference
• Different tiers by geographic location
• Ant group IPO suspended (4:00)
  • Ant's quick growth bridged China financial services GAP for SMEs
  • The reasons of Ant Group's trouble with China regulators
  • Positive development of future online financial service for China companies
  • Ant is not just technology company, it's a financial company
  • Higher standard regulation can only make the industry more sustainable
  • China regulation catch up on online gaming, online education and e-commerce
• China new 5-year plan (12:30)
• Enforce A-share investment
• Continuous Domestic consumption focus
• Next 5-10 year, more positive about China investment opportunity
• China Star Market is part of China IPO reform focus

Guest Contact Information

Vivian Lin

Email: [email protected]

Publication:

Vivian's blog site on William Blair:

https://active.williamblair.com/author/vivian-lin-thurston/

"Sustainable Trends Supporting China A-Shares"

https://active.williamblair.com/global-equity/vivian-lin-thurston/sustainable-trends-supporting-china-a-shares/?et_rid=0030z00002PDYkRAAX&et_sid=526962&utm_source=MC_2&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=&utm_content=https%3a%2f%2factive.williamblair.com%2fglobal-equity%2fvivian-lin-thurston%2fsustainable-trends-supporting-china-a-shares%2f

"Three Themes in Emerging Markets"

https://active.williamblair.com/global-equity/todd-mcclone/three-themes-in-emerging-markets/?et_rid=0030z00002PDYkRAAX&et_sid=509978&utm_source=MC_2&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=&utm_content=https%3a%2f%2factive.williamblair.com%2fglobal-equity%2ftodd-mcclone%2fthree-themes-in-emerging-markets%2f

"China Backdrop: Fundamentally and Technically Positive"

https://active.williamblair.com/global-equity/vivian-lin-thurston/china-backdrop-fundamentally-and-technically-positive/

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Vivian Lin, partner and portfolio manager of William Blair's China A-Shares Growth strategy and a global research analyst covering Chinese equities.

Their conversation starts with understanding the importance of China corporate governance for investor side. And the status of China corporate governance and ESG trend.

They then dive into China corporate governance key risks. Vivian shares how she handles these risks when she invests in China companies from selecting process and due diligence process.

They continue the conversation with China SOEs corporate governance. Vivian explains the different ownership of China SOEs. She reviews the key risk of China SOEs, and the societal contribution SOEs made to China society.

They closed the first part of the conversation by Vivian sharing her experience regarding things global investors do not know but should know about China SOEs. Vivian shares her experience working with China SOEs with professional management team, and her opinion regarding the importance of CEO compensation in China SOE reform.

Conversation Highlights (with timestamps)

• China companies' corporate governance so important to global investors? (2:30)
• Main CG risks of Chinese CG (7"00)
  • Equity share pledge and why it's so prevalent in China?
  • Chinese market constrains – leading business is not market driven
  • What's the break points of investment for China companies?
  • Accounting fraud issue of China companies and companies from other market
  • Investor due diligence key elements
• Different China state-owned enterprises (SOEs) (12:30)
  • Different ownership of SOEs in China
  • Central government owns traditional Industry (infrastructure, energy, material) – central government owned
  • Provincial, city level SOEs New economy (consumption, service, technology) – with more professional management team
• Specific Risk of China SOEs (17:00)
  • Some SOEs might have better CG structure due to government's duty and intention
  • Minority investors influence to SOEs are limited - How to handle it?
• What western investors need to know about China SOEs (23:00)
  • Things investors do not like to see
  • What good SOEs in China look like with professional management team?
  • CEO Compensation in China SOEs – SOEs reform focus

Guest Contact Information

Vivian Lin

Email: [email protected]

Publication:

Vivian's blog site on William Blair:

https://active.williamblair.com/author/vivian-lin-thurston/

"Sustainable Trends Supporting China A-Shares"

https://active.williamblair.com/global-equity/vivian-lin-thurston/sustainable-trends-supporting-china-a-shares/?et_rid=0030z00002PDYkRAAX&et_sid=526962&utm_source=MC_2&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=&utm_content=https%3a%2f%2factive.williamblair.com%2fglobal-equity%2fvivian-lin-thurston%2fsustainable-trends-supporting-china-a-shares%2f

"Three Themes in Emerging Markets"

https://active.williamblair.com/global-equity/todd-mcclone/three-themes-in-emerging-markets/?et_rid=0030z00002PDYkRAAX&et_sid=509978&utm_source=MC_2&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=&utm_content=https%3a%2f%2factive.williamblair.com%2fglobal-equity%2ftodd-mcclone%2fthree-themes-in-emerging-markets%2f

"China Backdrop: Fundamentally and Technically Positive"

https://active.williamblair.com/global-equity/vivian-lin-thurston/china-backdrop-fundamentally-and-technically-positive/

This is part 2 of the South Africa Corporate Governance Episodes.

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Clint Bartlett, professional impact investment consultant and strategy advisor from South Africa. Clint has worked across Sub-Saharan Africa, the US, the UK and Europe on projects related to impact strategy and sustainable finance.

Clint reviews the impact of BEE to South Africa corporate governance development, the main function of corporate governance in South Africa, how the stewardship has worked for impact investment in the past decades, and impact of South Africa social issues to the effectiveness of stewardship. He also shares his concerns about the country current situation.

At the end, based on current situation in South Africa, Clint suggests investors who have asset in South Africa re-evaluate investment strategy, return expectation, and make rational decision before making next strategic move.

Conversation Highlights (with timestamps)

• Clint's understanding of corporate governance in general (1:30)
• Why we often saw bad governance, but not good governance in non-South African society (4:00)
• The turning point of willingness to see good governance (5:30)
• What corporate governance mean for organizations in South Africa with BEE implementation (6:00)
• Challenges of putting BEE in the center of corporate governance (9:10)
• South African education system situation due to implementation of corporate governance issue (10:20)
• How the stewardship in South Africa play its roles in impact investment (13:20)
• - Impact investing & stewardship issues (15:20)
• Impact investing growing trend (17:55)
• What investors need to consider about investment in South Africa (18:50)

Guest Contact Information

Clint Bartlett

Email: [email protected]

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clintdbartlett/

Publication: https://nextbillion.net/risk-perception-funding-gap/