The people around the table
Composition, skills and training — for boards, executive committees, and the institutions that appoint directors. Four engagements, from a board seminar built from your own documents to programmes for the institutions that appoint directors. This page is how the work is actually done.
Four engagements, from the seminar to the programme
Each starts from your documents and your peers' practice, and ends in the boardroom.
- 01Composition & skills matrix ↗A competency framework turned into a director self-assessment, a collective skills map and peer benchmarks from Gov360 Data; gap analysis against what the strategy requires, and a succession plan. Standard definitions of experience and competencies, so the matrix can be compared with the market rather than read in isolation.
- 02Board & executive committee training ↗Tailor-made seminars for the board alone or with the executive committee, on the topics the board needs to master. Built from your documents, research on peers and regulation, and interviews with key function holders; delivered in the boardroom, in French or English, with a certificate on request.
- 03Sustainability & CSRD training ↗A 360° training for boards and executive committees on European sustainability requirements, investor and rating-agency expectations, materiality, and the board's own role — with your peers' practice as the benchmark. Typically two to four hours, in person or remote, built on real cases and group work.
- 04Nominee director & investment-officer training ↗Governance programmes for development finance institutions and investors: nominee directors trained on their duties and on how a board actually works; investment officers equipped to raise governance with clients — when to raise it, the objections they will meet, and the practical answers.
Composition and skills are a chapter of their own
How the matrix is built, the scale that decides what counts as evidence, and the taxonomy behind each skill — on one page.
How we build a skills matrix ↗Collective competence is now a supervisory question
For a long time a board's skills were a matter for the nomination committee alone. Three things changed that: supervisors assess the competence of the board as a whole, the codes ask for training on the subjects that moved fastest, and the agenda now moves faster than the expertise around the table.
Fit and proper — and the competence of the board as a whole
For insurers and banks, the suitability regime asks not only whether each director is fit and proper, but whether the board is collectively competent for the business it oversees — under Solvency II as applied by the ACPR, and the joint EBA and ESMA guidelines on the assessment of suitability.
Training on what moved fastest
The Afep-Medef code provides that directors may receive training on environmental and climate issues; the ICGN Global Governance Principles ask directors to refresh their skills and knowledge periodically, particularly on sustainability. Neither says how. That is the seminar's job.
Faster than the expertise
Sustainability, cyber and artificial intelligence reach the board's agenda before the skills to challenge them sit around the table. A seminar built from the board's own papers closes that gap faster than a recruitment does — and the codes now expect it.
References: Afep-Medef code (2022 edition); ICGN Global Governance Principles (2021); ACPR notice on the assessment of fitness and propriety; joint EBA/ESMA guidelines on the assessment of the suitability of members of the management body.
One board, one room — or a whole institution
Five formats, from the playbook we run every seminar from. Each is tailored to the client's industry, region and stage of development, to the size and background of the audience, and to what it said it expected.
- 01In-boardroom programmeFor one board, in its own room, on its own papers: the format most boards start with. Two hours to a full day.
- 02One- or two-day programmeFor a board and its senior management, or for several boards of the same group — two days when the agenda asks for it, with a certificate for each participant on request.
- 03À la carte curriculumModules chosen from our library and recombined for the board: the topics it needs to master this year, in the order it needs them.
- 04Board and senior management togetherThe same room for directors and executives: one of the few settings where the two align on priorities rather than report to each other.
- 05Governance programmes for development finance institutionsNominee directors, investment officers and the institution's own screening tool — detailed below.
Six weeks, counted backwards
Every training is unique to the client: its industry, region and stage of development, the size and background of the audience, and what it said it expected. The build is timed backwards from the day in the boardroom, four to six weeks ahead. Two senior advisors present, supported by an analyst, and every figure carries its source and its year.
Two recent formats, without names: a two-and-a-half-hour workshop in two modules — recent governance trends, then how to raise governance with a client; and a two-day public-sector programme in four themes — governance policies, board evaluation methods, the audit and risk committee, the board charter.
A two-way conversation, not a lecture
Directors do not sit through slides. Every session is built to be interrupted — and the benchmarks in the room are the board's own.
Your peers' practice, live
Gov360 Data benchmarks on the board's own peer group, real cases from its sector, and a fictional running case revealed in stages — so the discussion starts from something recognisable.
Polls, break-outs, a masterclass slot
Live polls to surface where the board disagrees with itself, break-out groups on the cases, and a slot where an outside expert adds what we cannot.
A local co-facilitator, when it matters
For international programmes: a co-facilitator who knows the market, simultaneous interpretation, pre-translated materials — and train-the-trainer sessions so the institution can carry the programme on.
Ten steps on the journey, five questions for the board
From a two-hour session to a full day, for the directors and executives of the same company, in French or English, in person or remote, with a certificate of completion on request. The syllabus follows the company's own sustainability journey — and asks at each step what the board is for.
- 01Materiality assessmentWhat matters, to whom — and how the board was involved in deciding it.
- 02StrategyWhere sustainability sits in the strategy the board approved, and where it is bolted on.
- 03Metrics and targetsWhich indicators the board tracks, and whether the targets were set by it or presented to it.
- 04Policies, procedures and frameworksWhat has been written down, and who owns it.
- 05Values, norms and incentivesWhether executive pay and culture point in the same direction as the targets.
- 06Risk management and internal controlsHow sustainability risks enter the risk map and the control system.
- 07Systems and dataWhether the data reported would survive an auditor.
- 08ReportingThe CSRD statement, the Omnibus changes, and what investors and rating agencies read in them.
- 09Engagement and communicationWhat is said to shareholders, employees and regulators — and by whom.
- 10EmbeddingThe point at which sustainability stops being a project.
Modules à la carte: introduction to the CSRD and the implications of the Omnibus legislation; ESG demand drivers — regulation, international standards, market expectations; ESG ratings; board and executive roles under the CSRD; the materiality matrix; ESG risks and opportunities; integrating environmental, climate and social issues into strategy; sustainability and remuneration; board structure and composition. Two objectives above the others: give directors the key questions to put to management, constructively — and give directors and executives one room in which to align on priorities.
Four things on the table after the session
A seminar is not over when the room empties. What the board keeps:
The deck and its materials
Tailor-made for this board, with every figure sourced and dated — and the best-practice materials the modules drew on.
The takeaways note
Within two weeks: the main points, the questions the board raised, and what was left open.
A certificate, on request
Evidencing compliance with the training requirements some regulators impose on directors.
A checklist for the board
The issues the programme identified that the board needs to address — the start of its next agenda.
Nominee directors — and the officers who raise governance with clients
Two audiences, one programme design: adult learning, real cases from the institution's own portfolio, and a pilot session before the roll-out. For nominee directors: four sessions of three and a half hours, eighteen to twenty participants, pre-readings and a guidance booklet. Four objectives — add value to the investee and its board; introduce or improve good governance practice; strengthen portfolio management; help the institution understand its investees. Where a programme rolls out across several countries, we train the institution's local partners to carry it on.
Investment officers: governance across the whole investment cycle
The evidence used to make the case is public: IFC, Governance and Performance in Emerging Markets (2018) — 264 companies observed; those that improved their governance during the investment period achieved around 20% higher return on equity, and the top governance quartile averaged 18.6% against 6.9% for the bottom quartile.
Governance is an investment question before it is a compliance question.
Planning a board seminar or a skills review?
Tell us the topic and the calendar — the seminar is built from your documents, the matrix against your peers. Let's discuss it.
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